I am stumped on the meaning of te kuru I was wondering if someone could better define the meaning of them for me.

Here is an example conversation.

(Phone rings)
（正宗の母) 「正宗？」
(正宗) 職場に電話してくるのはやめてよ。
（正宗の母)　だって家に何べん電話したって　あんた　出ないじゃないの
。。。　ねえ　母さんがさ　送った資料　会社の 読んでくれた？

I have a few questions..

1) 話してくる in line 2. Could someone explain why you tag くる to the end please?
2) 読んでくれた Again, why is kureta tabbed on to the end.

If anyone could explain te kuru and te iku to me I would be greatly appreciative. I read Tae Kims guide but I still dont understand te iku/kuru when not used in a directional or time context.

Thanks

I think for number 2 she is just saying that reading them is a favour to her. 読んだ？　Would mean did you read them. 読んでくれた？ Means did you read them for me? The use of the て　form is just to link 読む　and　くれる.

Thanks for your reply.

i wonder then, why do they not use the kanji for くれた （呉れた）？　in the subtitles.

I would guess it's just a stylistic choice but I can't really comment on that kind of thing.

The kanji form is no longer used, except by writers doing it for stylistic purposes, as it's now outdated.

Ok thanks, I guess it's implied by the context then. I will probably need to see more examples of it before it sinks in.

Any thoughts on question 1?

I have thoughts but I figured you'd probably have worked out as much as me allready.

電話してくる probably means the call is coming to the workplace (職場に). Again, I think the て form is just to link 電話して　＆　来る。 The problem is I have no idea how this differs from just 職場に電話してのは, without the 来る. Maybe stylistic?

Well to be honest I didn't apply the logic from your first reply because.

sentence 2 is to read + kuru meaning do me favor and read.

sentence 1 is to do + kuru which doesn't mean the same thing.

There are so many explanations for verb + kuru that I am getting bamboozled by every different situation. I was hoping someone would chime in with an all round definition.

As for the difference between 職場に電話してのは, with or without the 来る. I agree that there is more than one way to say something. So you are probably correct.

来る　＆　呉れる　have different meanings because they are different words. Maybe your confusion comes from that fact that the potential form of 来る　is also くれる, but I don't think 呉れる　can ever be　くる　because くれる seems to be its base form. Even if they were both くる it woud just mean they're homonyms.

Basically 来る = to come
呉れる= give/do for me

so: Phone + come = Phone here
read + do for me (favour) = read for me

always it conjugates to this for the make someone do conjugation.
買ってこさせる

i saw it on the tv show and i thought oh.. interesting.

Splatted is right, you are confusing two completely separate verbs (kuru and kureru) here.

On kanji use, I think it's a fairly common style not to use kanji for "auxiliary verbs" (verbs which are tacked onto the end of another verb and basically performing a grammatical function). Older or more literary texts might tend more to use kanji for auxiliary verbs.

Splatted Wrote:電話してくる probably means the call is coming to the workplace (職場に). Again, I think the て form is just to link 電話して　＆　来る。The problem is I have no idea how this differs from just 職場に電話してのは, without the 来る.

Yes, this is the 'directional' meaning of te-kuru. If you didn't put in the kuru then you'd have 電話するのは, by the way: the -te form is only there to link it to the following kuru so without kuru you need the plain form again. Having the くる isn't obligatory in this case (because the direction of the call is clear enough from context) but makes it clear that the calls are coming in to the person who's speaking.

A couple of sentences I made up which might or might not help:
彼はいつも酔っぱらうと電話する -- he always makes phone calls when he gets drunk
彼はいつも酔っぱらうと電話してくる -- he always phones me when he gets drunk

Splatted Wrote:来る　＆　呉れる　have different meanings because they are different words. Maybe your confusion comes from that fact that the potential form of 来る　is also くれる

It's こられる (or これる in shortened form).

yudantaiteki Wrote:It's こられる (or これる in shortened form).

Rikaichan recognises both こられる & くれる as potential forms of 来る. I can think of a couple of reasons why this might be the case but can someone clarify whether くれる is actually wrong or if its just not quite right.

Wow, this makes a lot more sense now I realise that his mum is the one calling him, and it's not that they're in the same room and the phone's ringing.

Anyway, what does べん mean here?

何べん means "how many times" (with the って here it's "no matter how many times..."). Apparently the kanji is 遍.

I have never heard of くれる as a potential of くる.

Splatted Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:It's こられる (or これる in shortened form).

Rikaichan recognises both こられる & くれる as potential forms of 来る. I can think of a couple of reasons why this might be the case but can someone clarify whether くれる is actually wrong or if its just not quite right.

It's wrong, the potential forms are こられる or これる. If a program is saying that くれる is the potential then it's likely because the program isn't taking into account that 来る is an irregular verb, and the program is trying to apply the conjugation rules for potential form to it. If 来る were a regular verb the potential would be くれる, but it's not a regular verb.

Ok, thanks for pointing that out.^^

Thanks for all your replies to this thread. If I come across anymore te kuru examples that I have trouble understanding i'll consolidate them here.

pm215 your example helped to illutrate the point a lot.