「に」(3) Mark an indirect object
「に」(3) Mark an indirect object
For, to
On of the many uses of に is to mark the indirect object of a sentence.
When used as an indirect object marker, に indicates the person or thing that is the recipient of the action of a verb. に is placed directly after the indirect object that it marks. It is often translated as to or for.
To illustrate, take the action of throwing a ball. The ball is the direct object that is being thrown and is therefore marked by the particle を. Often we also have a target at which we throw—that target is the indirect object, marked by the particle に.
私は友達に手紙を書いた。
I wrote a letter to my friend.
先生にプレゼントをあげた。
I gave a present to (my) teacher.
私は友達に本を貸した。
I lent a book to my friend.
Special Note
As you will see, に often appears with verbs that involve a kind of transfer from one person to another. Some examples include 話す speak, 見せる show, 投げる throw, 教える teach, 電話する call, and あげる give.
The に is attached to the person to whom the action is directed towards, while the person doing the action is often marked with は, but can also be marked with が. Or, returning to our analogy, に puts a target 
on the indirect object.
someoneさんに電話する
to call someone
Here it puts the target on the person we are calling; that is to say, they are the recipient of the call.
ボールをsomeoneに投げる
to throw the ball at someone
Now the target is on the person or object we throw the ball at.
Making に the topic
In Japanese, each element of a sentence can represent a case, which tells us the function an element has in the sentence. As we learned in this lesson, the ～に case can tell us what the indirect object is in a sentence.
社長に酒を買う。
I will buy alcohol for the company president.
In this sentence, our case 社長に tells us who the alcohol will be purchased for. Each case like this in a Japanese sentence can be turned into the topic of the sentence using は. Depending on the particle the element uses, the change to は looks a bit different.
Below you can see an overview of the changes that happen when turning a case into our topic.
が | を | に | で | へ | と | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case | が | を | に | で | へ | と |
Topic | は | は | には | では | へは | とは |
Notice that when に is converted into a topic using は, it combines to form には. Let's now take our example from above and turn our ～に case into the topic.
社長には、酒を買う。
For the company president (but not for other people), I will buy alcohol.
So, what is different from the first version of this sentence? The most likely interpretation is that は is simply used to add a sense of contrast, indicating that the speaker will buy alcohol for the company president, but not for other people. Without the は, the sentence simply expresses that the speaker will buy alcohol for the company president, without the nuance of excluding other people.
Formation
娘に
General Structure
私が、友達に本を買う。