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落ち葉が敷き詰められた庭。

Why is the passive form used here?

Is it because it's reffering to 庭?

I thought with passive it should have been:

庭は落ち葉に敷き詰められた。

Can someone explain the rule here?

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1 Answer 1

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You'll get 落ち葉が敷き詰められた庭 by turning 庭に落ち葉が敷き詰められた。 into a relative clause.


Here are the non-relative active voice sentences:

落ち葉敷き詰めた。/
落ち葉敷き詰めた。

Their passive voice equivalents would be:

落ち葉庭に敷き詰められた。/
落ち葉で敷き詰められた。

Turning them into relative clauses, you'll get:

「(庭に敷き詰められた)落ち葉」「(落ち葉が敷き詰められた)庭」/
「(落ち葉で敷き詰められた)庭」

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  • Isn't 敷き詰める=to cover a surface? 落ち葉を庭に敷き詰めた。/ 庭を落ち葉で敷き詰めた。 Why are you using 落ち葉を in the first active sentence? I would think that 落ち葉 is doing the action of covering 庭. I would say 落ち葉が庭を敷き詰めた。 I do not understand why am i wrong. Isn't the direct object 庭 and the subject 落ち葉?
    – Splikie
    Nov 5, 2015 at 14:03
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    敷き詰める means 「すき間のないように敷く 」 (not 覆う), which is like "(for someone) to fully cover (something with something)", the subject of which should be people, as in 「(人が)[物]を[場所]に敷き詰める」
    – Chocolate
    Nov 5, 2015 at 15:24

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