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causative passive

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kindaichi83
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Posts: 1
Joined: December 5th, 2015 3:46 pm

causative passive

Postby kindaichi83 » December 5th, 2015 3:48 pm

what is the difference between the following two sentences?

1)あたらしいテレビを子供に壊された。

2)あたらしいテレビを子供に壊させられた。

both are causative passives right? but the correct answer in my book is the first one...

mmmason8967
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Joined: January 7th, 2012 12:24 pm

Re: causative passive

Postby mmmason8967 » December 11th, 2015 10:32 pm

kindaichi83 wrote:what is the difference between the following two sentences?

The short answer, I think, is the first sentence is passive and the second sentence is causative-passive.

In a passive sentence it is the grammatical subject that is one the receiving end of the action described. neither of these sentences have an explicit subject, so the missing subject is presumably goiung to be the speaker.

1)あたらしいテレビを子供に壊された。

This sentence says that the speaker was on the receiving end of a child breaking a new television. That is, "A child broke the new television" is something that happened to the speaker. Often this kind of passive structure is used to say that something happened and the speaker isn't happy about it.

2)あたらしいテレビを子供に壊させられた。

This sentence says that the speaker was on the receiving end of a child causing someone (i.e. the speaker) to break the new television.

マイケル

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community.japanese
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Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: causative passive

Postby community.japanese » December 12th, 2015 11:30 am

マイケルさん、
こんにちは。
その通りです。 :oiwai:

kindaichi83さん、
マイケルさんの言った通りです。

Yuki  由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

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