Japanese verbs often conveniently come in transitive/intransitive pairs, but sometimes those verbs don’t have the meanings you would expect. In this post I’d like to talk about “ukeru”（受ける） and “ukaru”（受かる), two verbs that are pretty important in daily life.
The first of these, “ukeru” is the transitive one, which means it takes an object using the particle “o” (を). The basic meaning of “ukeru” is “to receive”. Let’s look at a basic example:
* ボールを受けた (booru o uketa)
* I received the ball.
It depends on the context, but this likely means ‘received’ in the sense of physically catching the ball, like in a game of baseball（The loanword キャッチする [kyacchi suru] can also be used for this). Since “ukeru” has other meanings, you can use the compound verb “uketoru” to help specify that something was physically acquired: (“toru” means “to take”)
* 枕を受け取りました。 [makura wo uketorimashita]
* I received a pillow.
But it doesn’t have to be something physically tossed. Both of these verbs can be used to receive something like a prize, or something in the mail.
A related verb is 受け止める (uketomeru), which has a similar meaning to the above two verbs. But it also has the nuance of an emotional reaction, or emotionally accepting something or someone. (“Tomeru” means “to stop”.)
Another common usage of “ukeru” is for taking a school class, or taking a test.
* 明日、算数の試験を受けるよ (ashita, sansuu no shiken o ukeru yo)
* Tomorrow I’m going to take a math test.
Note that you can’t use “uketoru” for these types of cases. “Ukeru” can also be used to refer to “accepting” something like a marriage proposal, or the conditions of some contract.
But perhaps the most interesting use of “ukeru” is to express that an audience likes some sort of content, often that which is meant to be comedic. But this doesn’t have to be a big formal thing, it can simply mean that someone liked a joke you said:
* その駄洒落、受けるね (sono dajare, ukeru ne)
* That pun is funny, you know.
In the martial art of Aikido there are several important words related to “ukeru”, which are “uke”（受け） meaning “person who receives an attack”, and “ukemi” (受け身、falling without injury, see this for more info).
On the other hand, “ukaru” is an intransitive verb that has a related, but different meaning than “ukeru”. It means to pass a test:
* 理科のテストに受かるといいね (rika no testo ni ukaru to ii ne)
* I hope you/we can pass the science test.
Notice that the “ni” particle is used here to describe what is being passed, not the “o” particle. This pattern can be seen in other words such as 成功 (“seikou”, to succeed). By the way, 合格する (goukaku suru), is a synonym for “ukaru”, and often you will simply see the word 合格 listed on a test that is a pass (不合格 [fugoukaku] means “fail”).
“Ukaru” doesn’t have any other common uses and hence can’t be used as broadly as “ukeru”. But it’s good to know you can use the passive form of “ukeru” if you want to express something being received or caught:
* ボールが受けられた (booru ga ukerareta)
* The ball was caught.
Are there any Japanese verb pairs you struggle with? If so please let me know in the comments. Also, here is another article about another interesting verb pair.
Here’s a calligraphy work I did using the kanji character from “ukeru”:
