讓 — the action belongs to B, set off by A.

TSUMUGU · TBCL 3 (est.) · 語法

讓 grammar point · tier 1 · causative/permissive 讓 (let / make someone do)

· ràng

A grants or causes the room for B to do the verb: A 讓 B V — the action belongs to B, set off by A.

字源 FORM what the parts do

言 the speech, the words. 襄 is on loan for the sound, xiāng worn down to ràng; it spells no part of the meaning. 讓 is the pivot: the grantor stands before it, the one who acts and the action follow after.

故事 STORY a scene to remember it by

One person steps back and opens the gate; the second walks through and does the deed. The gate-keeper never takes the step.

字源記憶法自撰

框 · Frame

[A grantor] 讓 [B doer] [verb phrase]

觸 · Trigger

You want to say one party makes room for, permits, or brings about a second party's action — the doing belongs to the second.

序 · The move

1Name the grantor A — the side that permits or causes.Is A the one clearing the way, not the one acting?

2Place 讓 after A.Does A 讓 sit before the second party?

3Put the doer B and B's verb phrase after 讓.Does the verb describe what B does, not what A does?

4Read it back as a chain: A sets it off, B carries it out.Swap A and B — if the meaning stays sensible, the grantor and doer have collapsed; redo.

例 · Examples

1睡前before sleeping喝杯熱牛奶drink a cup of hot milk，可以can / is able to讓let / make (grantor → doer)我me (the doer)睡得更好sleep better。

Drinking a cup of hot milk before bed can let me sleep better.

界 · Boundary

被

讓 sets off another's action (A makes room, B does it); 被 marks the subject as the one acted upon. With 讓 the spotlight stays on what B does next; with 被 it lands on what happens to the subject.

給 (ditransitive)

給 hands an object across to a recipient; 讓 hands over the room to act. After 讓 comes a verb the second party performs, not a thing transferred.

睡前喝杯熱牛奶讓睡得更好 ✗ → 睡前喝杯熱牛奶讓我睡得更好 ✓ (the doer B must be named between 讓 and the verb)

我讓喝牛奶睡得好 ✗ → 喝牛奶讓我睡得好 ✓ (the grantor, not the doer, sits before 讓)

這讓我很高興 used as 'this lets me be happy' decoded word-by-word ✗ → read it as 'this makes me happy' ✓ (讓 covers both permit and cause; the verb phrase decides which)

English splits 'let' (permit) from 'make' (compel); 讓 is one word for both. The grantor + 讓 + doer + verb order also tempts English speakers to drop the doer ('makes sleep better'), but Chinese keeps B explicit.

族 · Family

令A quality or situation makes a person feel a reaction; the cause comes first, 令 hands the feeling down onto the person named after.使A cause makes a person or thing end up in a new state: [cause] 使 [target] [resulting state].使得A cause clause comes first, then 使得 hands its outcome forward: what follows is the resulting state the cause brings about.叫the someone is the object of 叫 and the doer of the verb at once.叫Pivotal verb: subject tells or gets a named person to perform the following action; that person is both the one called and the one who acts.害Links a culprit's (usually careless) action to the bad outcome it inflicts on someone else, with the blame riding along.讓Permissive causative: 讓 takes the person, then the verb they are allowed to do. The subject grants it; the person performs it.