に vs. を in "to pass a test"

Question

Every time I'm feeling confident about the correct usage of に, を, and で, I get thrown for a loop. Could someone please explain to me the use of に in this sentence:

I will study a lot and pass the test

watashi wa takusan benkyō shite tesuto ni gōkaku shimasu
私はたくさん勉強してテストに合格します。

I chose を instead of に and it was marked incorrect on my test. I'm not really sure why. I'm assuming that に is correct because I should have interpreted the sentence as "I will study a lot to pass the test"?

Thank you very much in advance for any clarification.

Answer 1

The ultimate answer to your question is "Japanese is different from English". I understand you want a reason, but there may not be a good reason. Some English transitive verbs are translated using a Japanese intransitive verb, and vice versa. For each verb, you have to remember the correct particle, one by one.

Intransitive in English, Transitive in Japanese

• to look at the picture 絵を見る
• to listen to the music 音楽を聞く
• to hope for a success 成功を望む
• to graduate from the school 学校を卒業する
• to refer to a dictionary 辞書を参照する

Transitive in English, Intransitive in Japanese

• to reach the destination 目的地に着く
• to enter the park 公園に入る
• to meet her 彼女に会う / 彼女と会う
• to kiss him 彼にキスする
• to marry her 彼女と結婚する
• to say yes はいと言う

Tricky ones like 合格する are asked in exams. In general, it's always best to learn verbs along with its concrete usage examples.

Answer 2

I suppose the one sentence answer is that 合格する is an intransitive verb and so it cannot use を to indicate the object.

There's two things to note here I think:

1. する-verbs can be either intransitive, transitive, or both. Only transitive verbs can use the direct object marker を.

合格 (intransitive)

検索{けんさく} (transitive): 索引{さくいん}で関係事項{かんけいじこう}を検索する (デジタル大辞泉)

完成{かんせい} (both):「大作{たいさく}を完成する」「ビルが完成する」 (デジタル大辞泉)

2. に means many things, one of which can translate to the English "to". In this case it is used to indicate the (indirect) object of the verb 合格する.

Some additional references:

• Usage of Particle Ni
• Wasabi's guide to uses of に

Answer 3

The reason it takes に could be that 合格する carries an image of "matching". The verb 合う ("to match"), which uses the same character, also takes に to mark its target.

By the way, 会う, which shares an origin with 合う, is also used with に and not を. Why so is a question frequently asked by learners.