Causative くれる and もらう


I am learning causative forms.

> 先生が参加させて **くれました** 。  
>  The teacher allowed me to participate.

What does 先生が参加させて **もらいました** mean?




`参加させてもらう` also means "being allowed to participate", but the focus is on the
subject (who is being allowed), not so much on the "allower". More literally
it would be "receiving the favour of being allowed to participate".

But there's an area of caution here. If the second sentence is indeed supposed
to be 先生 **が**... , then it means "the teacher was allowed to participate".
`もらう` uses `に` to mark the subject from whom you are receiving the favour
(term?), but in this case it is omitted (possibly because that subject is
vague of irrelevant).

However, my inclination is that the second sentence is really supposed to be
先生 **に**... , in which case it would mean roughly the same thing as the first
sentence: The teacher allowed me to participate. However, as I mentioned, in
this case, the focus is more on the act of you receiving permission from the
teacher, rather than on the teacher's (kind) act of allowing you to
participate.

For more information on the distinctions between `〜（て）くれる` and `〜（て）もらう` (and
by extension, `〜（て）くださる` and `〜（て）いただく`, [refer to the answers in this
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/402/78).




`参加させてもらう` also means "being allowed to participate", but the focus is on the
subject (who is being allowed), not so much on the "allower". More literally
it would be "receiving the favour of being allowed to participate".

But there's an area of caution here. If the second sentence is indeed supposed
to be 先生 **が**... , then it means "the teacher was allowed to participate".
`もらう` uses `に` to mark the subject from whom you are receiving the favour
(term?), but in this case it is omitted (possibly because that subject is
vague of irrelevant).

However, my inclination is that the second sentence is really supposed to be
先生 **に**... , in which case it would mean roughly the same thing as the first
sentence: The teacher allowed me to participate. However, as I mentioned, in
this case, the focus is more on the act of you receiving permission from the
teacher, rather than on the teacher's (kind) act of allowing you to
participate.

For more information on the distinctions between `〜（て）くれる` and `〜（て）もらう` (and
by extension, `〜（て）くださる` and `〜（て）いただく`, [refer to the answers in this
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/402/78).

