Sunday, September 3, 2017

meaning - What is the difference between 捕まえられた and 捕まった?


Consider the following sentences:



A: 私が警察に捕まえられた。


B: 私が警察に捕まった。



Both mean I was caught by the police.



What is the difference between 捕まえられた and 捕まった ?




Answer



Both sentences are correct and the same in meaning, but sentence B is far more common and sounds natural.


For some reason, some Japanese verbs intrinsically have passive meanings, and they are used more commonly than the transitive verb + ~れる/られる version.


See the following question for the list of such verbs.



This question is also related: ところを 見つかる, this was in a highly reputable dictionary


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