N4 grammar

〜ておく

teoku

Doing it in advance

Formation

ておく means doing something now because of what comes later, like booking a table or reading the notes before a meeting. It can also mean leaving something as it is on purpose. In conversation it usually shrinks to とく.

Examples

〜ておく is marked in each sentence. Tap any word for its dictionary entry.

  1. I'll put the old bridge back.

  2. We kept the fire burning.

  3. Please go over the script.

  4. Have something to eat just in case.

  5. We prepared snacks beforehand.

The explanation is ours, written for this site. Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), each machine-checked to actually contain the pattern. Furigana is generated automatically, so a rare reading may be imperfect.