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Particle が and に in this sentence below
朝、まだ寝ている時、友達(に)来られました。
Why does the context above use particle に instead of が?
Jul 6, 2019 1:17 PM
Answers · 2
に来られた (に + passive verb form) usually also conveys a dissatisfaction towards what happened, so in this case the visit wasn't welcome. This is very common structure in Japanese.
If you said "朝、まだ寝ている時、友達 が 来ました", this would just be a neutral "... my friend came over". and "朝、まだ寝ている時、友達 が 来られました" would have the same meaning but in this case the passive form would convey higher politeness level towards the friend. Another example of this usage would be: "先生がこられました” the teacher came"
July 6, 2019
こんにちは。 「来られました」 is a verb in the passive form. When we use the passive form, the person from which the action is taken is pointed with に。 Another example: 私は お母さんに しかられました I was scolded by my mother.
July 6, 2019
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Mia
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Hakka), Chinese (Hokkien), English, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Russian, Spanish
Learning Language
Japanese, Russian, Spanish
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