The purpose of this paper is clarifying the difference between "-ga mieru" and "-ga mirareru". "Mirareru" is the potential form of the verb "miru" and "mieru" is the "jihatsu" form of it, which is a kind of potential form but not the regular potential...
The purpose of this paper is clarifying the difference between "-ga mieru" and "-ga mirareru". "Mirareru" is the potential form of the verb "miru" and "mieru" is the "jihatsu" form of it, which is a kind of potential form but not the regular potential form. Therefor "mieru" and "mirareru" belong to the quite different grammatical categories. The both, however, have much similarity in meaning. There are actually many situations where both "mieru" and "mirareru" seem to be usable. In such situations "mieru" is preferred to "mirareru" because Japanese language has the tendency that the expressions of "jihatsu" is preferred to the ones of potential.