What is the grammatical meaning of おく in this context?

Can anyone tell me the meaning of おく in the context of these two sentence.

家具が倒れないようにしておく。


地域の避難場所を確認しておく。

Although I understand the meaning of the sentence, I don't understand what おく means in these context, and how should it be used?

Thanks in advance.

seasurfer said:

Can anyone tell me the meaning of おく in the context of these two sentence.

Click to expand...

... and intentionally leave (it / them) (at that / like that).
Although it often doesn't have an equivalent in a suitable English translation.

家具が倒れないようにしておく。

Set the furniture so it won't fall over (and leave it like that).

地域の避難場所を確認しておく。

Check the area's emergency shelters. [The nuance is a bit tricky but I think it has a sort of "and mark off as 'job-done'" type of ring.]

地域の避難場所を確認しておく

This one may not be as tricky as one would probably think. I think this really just means ``confirm BEFORE HAND the area`s emergency shelters`.

Oku is used like that (after the te form of the verb) to indicate setting things up and then leaving them set up like that, often in preparation for some future contingency. Literally it's the oku that means "to put" - it's like you are putting something in its proper place to be ready for later developments.

I'll post in a bit from a dictionary, hope the copyright is OK. You can see that it's always setting up a state of affairs that will then remain constant for a certain period of time.

2 〔｢窶ｦしておく｣の形で〕(1)〔前もってする〕
お部屋を掃除しておきました I've cleaned the room for you.
彼が席を取っておいてくれた〔確保してくれた〕He ｢has kept [has saved / 〔予約してくれた〕has reserved] a seat for me.(2)〔そのままの状態にする〕leave;〔させておく〕let 《a person do》
ドアを開けっ放しにしておく leave the door open
そのままにしておけ Leave things as they are. / 〔触れるな〕 Leave it alone.
混ぜたら一晩そのままにしておきなさい After you mix it, let it stand overnight.
言いたいことを言わせておいた I let her have her say.
彼を長い間待たせておいた I kept him waiting for a long time.
部屋の温度を一年中一定にしておく必要がある.The room temperature has to be constant all the year round.(3)〔さしあたりそうする〕
聞かなかったことにしておこう I'll just pretend I didn't hear it. / I will say I have not heard about it.
お礼の気持ちだから取っておいてください Just accept it as a token of my gratitude.

Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, Second edition (c) Shogakukan 1993.