The main focus of the section 41 is to change some giving/receiving sentences to be more polite, or to be used when the receiver is a lower status person.
A1: Making it honorific : Morai mashita => Itadaki mashita
A2: Making it honorific : Kure mashita => Kudasai mashita
A3: The receiver is Lower status : Age mashita => Yari mashita
Actually, some textbook writes have a belief that teaching everything is important. Such textbook writers would add “Age mashita => Sashiage mashita”. But I don’t think teaching everything is good, because it increases learners’ burden to study. I think that teaching items are to be limited so that more basic and more frequently used items would be prioritized in second language learning. Anyway, A1 through A3 introduce the sentences of giving/receiving of an object that is a noun.
A1: [Noun] o Itadaki mashita
A2: [Noun] o Kudasai mashita
A3: [Noun] o Yari mashita
In A4 through A6, the sentences describing someone did a beneficial action to someone in the following forms;
A4: [V-te] Itadaki mashita
A5: [V-te] Kudasai mashita
A6: [V-te] Yari mashita
[V-te] means a verb in Te-form. But it is not just a verb in Te-form only, it includes words consisting a verb clause like “No’oto o Misete (to show his/her notebook)”.
Now the sentence construction of A4 is as shown below;
(1) Watashi wa [Person Superior] ni [V-te] Itadaki mashita.
If who did you a favor is not a person superior to you, the sentence would have been;
(2) Watashi wa [Person] ni [V-te] Morai mashita.
(2) is a polite sentence of “Desu-Masu style”, and (1) is a honorific with more politeness than (2). Take a look at examples below;
1. Watashi wa Sensei ni Kenkyuu-Shitsu no Naka o Misete Itadaki mashita.
(I was shown by the teacher the inside of the research room.)
2. Watashi wa Sensei ni Gakkai e Tsurete itte Itadaki mashita.
(I was taken by the teacher to the academic conference.)
3. Watashi wa Sensei ni Supi’ichi Contesuto no Genkou o Naoshite Itadaki mashita.
(I was given by my teacher corrections on my draft for speech contest.)
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This post was written with reference to the exercise A4 on Section41 of “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”
