Is telling a superior, "電子メールを見てくださいました," correct?


Imagine wanting to tell a superior something along the lines of, "I
saw/read/received your e-mail." In Japanese, there's sometimes something with
using the te form along with words like くださる and もらう to suggest a favor has
been done, or something like that. So would this be a good way to put it:

> 電子メールを見てくださいました。

As in, "I saw your nice e-mail," or something like that.

Why or why not? If not, what's the proper way to go about this? Thanks!




くださる is used when the -doer- is the one who needs honorifics, so that sentence
makes it sound like you're exalting yourself above the listener. (It can be
appropriate if you're talking about someone else having seen your email.) もらう
has similar problems - -てもらう is used when someone else is doing the thing, so
メールを見てもらった sounds like '[I] had [my] email read'. You don't typically talk
about doing favours for other people, generally you talk about other people
doing favours for you - the connotations of the relevant grammar honour the
person who goes out of his way to do something nice, rather than humbling the
person that receives the nice thing.

Typically in situations like this you don't need any particular honorifics
beyond -ます, but if the superior is high enough up in the company's hierarchy,
you might feel drawn to a humble sentence like メールをお読みしました. メールを見ました or
メールを読みました is almost always going to be enough.




くださる is used when the -doer- is the one who needs honorifics, so that sentence
makes it sound like you're exalting yourself above the listener. (It can be
appropriate if you're talking about someone else having seen your email.) もらう
has similar problems - -てもらう is used when someone else is doing the thing, so
メールを見てもらった sounds like '[I] had [my] email read'. You don't typically talk
about doing favours for other people, generally you talk about other people
doing favours for you - the connotations of the relevant grammar honour the
person who goes out of his way to do something nice, rather than humbling the
person that receives the nice thing.

Typically in situations like this you don't need any particular honorifics
beyond -ます, but if the superior is high enough up in the company's hierarchy,
you might feel drawn to a humble sentence like メールをお読みしました. メールを見ました or
メールを読みました is almost always going to be enough.

