みえる / みられる Japanese Grammar Lesson
Grammar Type: Verb (Group 2)
Essential Meaning: To be visible / To look X
Construction: Group 2 Verb
Notes:
- The primary usage of みえる (見える in kanji) is to indicate that something is passively visible. In other words, 見える means that something can be seen regardless of the volition of any agent. For example, on a clear, dark night the stars are visible regardless of whether there is actually anyone there to see them. In Japanese, you could say 星が見える。 [The stars are visible.]. Note that with 見える, the visible object is marked by が.
- Be careful not to confuse 見える with the potential verb form 見られる. 見られる indicates that something is actively rather than passively visible (i.e. the agent has control over whether he or she chooses to see something).
- E.g. テレビを買ったからテレビが見られる。[Because I bought a TV, I can watch TV shows.] In this example, the speaker has the active volitional potential to watch TV.
- E.g.私は目が見えない。[I’m blind (i.e. My eyes don’t have the potential to see).] Expressing blindness is a common usage of 見える. The idea is that the blind person has no potential to see, regardless of his or her volition. Thus, 見られる would be inappropriate.
- In some cases, both 見える and 見られる are acceptable, depending one whether the speaker believes that he or she has control over the situation.
- E.g. 隣に高いビルが立ったので山が見えなくなった。[Because a tall building was built next door, the mountains are no longer visible.] The use of 見える in this case implies a lack of agency. There’s nothing the speaker can do to rectify the situation.
- E.g. 隣に高いビルが立ったので山が見えられなくなった。[Because a tall building was built next door, I can’t see the mountains any more.] The use of 見られる implies that the speaker has some level of control over the situation. Perhaps he or she can move to a higher floor.
- There are two special usage of 見える to take note of:
- (1) 見える means “Look~” or “Looks like~” after adverbial adjectives or after Noun + に.
- E.g. あの人は年寄りずっと若く見える。[That person looks much younger than his age.]
- E.g. 女の人は夜きれいに見える。[Women looks pretty in the evening.]
- E.g. 中島さんは学生に見える。[Nakajima-san looks like a student.]
- (2) 見える can be used as a polite way to say 来る [To come]. Rather than saying “Mr. X came“, you are essentially saying “I was able to see Mr. X“. It comes across as more gracious and polite.
- E.g. お母さん、お客さんが見えたよ。[Mom, we have guests.]
- E.g. 学会には上田先生も見えた。[Professor Ueda came to the meeting, too (i.e. We had the pleasure of seeing Professor Ueda at the meeting too).]
- (1) 見える means “Look~” or “Looks like~” after adverbial adjectives or after Noun + に.
Example Sentences:
私には遠くのものがよく見える。[For me, distant objects are very visible (i.e. I have the ability to see distant objects well).]
窓から海が見える。[The sea is visible from the window.]
今日は山が近く見える。[The mountains appear close today.]
私には木の上の小さな鳥が見えた。[I was able to see small birds at the top of the tree.]
東京タワーからは東京の町がよく見える。[From Tokyo tower, the towns of Tokyo are quite visible.]
WILD Examples:
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