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A girl ties up a cat and puts it in the corner. She's not paying attention and it escapes. When she looks in the corner she sees the ropes, and she sees that the cat is gone, and she says "逃げられた".

Is that （猫が）逃げられた = 逃げることが出来た, or is it （私は猫に）逃げられた?

EDIT: Just to clarify, the first one is meant to be the potential form, and the second one is meant to be the passive form.

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The latter, passive.

cf. やられた！

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  • I agree. But why? We still haven't seen a good explanation why the "It was able to escape" reading is unnatural. If the reading were to be potential, I would expect something like "よく逃げられたねぇ", but I can't really explain why. – dainichi Nov 18 '13 at 5:28
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It is 猫に逃げられた, which expresses the fact that the speaker has suffered some damage from the event. 私は can be placed at the beginning but it is not essential. Native speakers would omit it over 95% of the time.

猫が逃げられた makes no sense whatsoever.

However,　something like　猫がネズミに逃げられた。 makes sense. The cat is the one that suffered damage from letting the mouse go in this sentence.

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  • The second paragraph and the third paragraph are contradicting each other. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 15 '13 at 13:46
  • どう思ってもらおうが自由ですけれど…。 – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 15 '13 at 13:49
  • @TokyoNagoya そんなことないでしょ～今までのダウンボート、トータルでたったの２回よ。Reputation>>>view moreで見たけど。 – user1016 Nov 15 '13 at 13:49
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    In other words, both 猫が逃げられた and 猫がネズミに逃げられた make sense in appropriate contexts. Neither makes sense in the context stated in the question. Why do you state one “makes no sense whatsoever” and the other “makes sense”? – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 15 '13 at 13:54
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    By the way, you do not have to believe that I am a Japanese speaker. You belief means nothing to me. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 15 '13 at 14:32

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