As I see, you have already guessed the answer. In this sentence,
-rareru ending does not indicate passive voice, but the potential form
of a verb of second type. As you must have heard, there are generally
three kinds of verbs in Japanese: consonant stem verbs (called also
verbs of first type (like kaku, warau, shinu etc.), vowel stem verbs
(II type - for example: taberu, kimeru, iru etc.) and irregular verbs
(suru and kuru, plus a few honorifics).
The potential form of verbs, equivalent in most uses in meaning to the
construction "V-ru koto ga dekiru" is built as follows:
I type verbs - cut of last -u and add -eru.
kaku -> kakeru - SOMEONE can write, SOMEONE is able to write
kau -> kaeru - SOMEONE can buy, SOMEONE is able to buy
yomu -> yomeru - SOMEONE can read, SOMEONE is able to read
II type verbs - cut of last -ru and add -rareru
taberu -> taberareru - SOMEONE can eat (sth), SOMEONE is able to eat
kimeru -> kimerareru - SOMEONE can decide, SOMEONE is able to decide
III type verbs - suru -> dekiru, kuru -> korareru.
In case of your sentence, dekakerarenai is a potential form of the
verb dekakeru: to go out, depart (dekakeru -> dekake + rareru =
dekakerareru + nai -> dekakerarenai).
The sentence can be translated as for example:
** Kyou ha ii tenki desu, shikashi watashi ha kaze wo hiiteiru node
dekakerarenai.
Today the weather is nice. Nevertheless, I have a cold, so I cannot go out.
or
Today the weather is nice, but I cannot go out because of having caught a cold.
Finally, I should add that in modern Japanese people of younger
generation (let's say under 50) often shorten potential forms of verbs
of II and III category using the ending used typically only for I type
verbs. Therefore, you can also often hear tabereru instead of
taberareru, koreru instead of korareru and dekakereru instead of
dekakerareru.
Maciek
2007/5/8, randhir_nag <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
I came across the following sentence :
kyou ha ii tenki desu, shikashi watashi ha kaze wo hiiteiru node
dekake rarenai
I wonder what the English translation of this would.I understand that
the -rareru form is for passive voice.But there seems to be nothing
'passive' about this sentence.
Was this a simple mistake(dekakerarenai instead of dekinai),or am i
missing some other usage of -rareru form?
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