離れる translation

離す and 離れる have both the meaning “to separate” in wanikani. Wouldn’t be “to be separated” be a better choice for 離れる? Since it’s an intransitive verb.

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Except that with English being what it is, the meaning is often actually written with “separate” not “be separated”, an active/passive distinction where Japanese makes a transitive / intransitive one, in effect.

Edit to add: what is usually happening is a reflexive use of the verb - “to separate itself” but where natural English would not tend to use that formation. E.G. “The capsule separated from the spaceship” → “the capsule [separated itself] from the spaceship” / “The capsule [became separated] from the spaceship”.

Don’t get caught up on the transitivity of the English matching the Japanese. Sometimes it just doesn’t.

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Since I’m not English native I feel just frustrated when I think “It’s intransitive so let’s type ‘to be separated’ and it gets marked as wrong”…^^ I didn’t know that it sounds unnatural. Maybe “get separated” would be better? I think I add many readings that sound unnatural for an English native. :smiley:

Couldn’t “to be separated” also be passive?

In any case, there are no guarantees with how the most natural translation will come out.

A literal translation of 分かる is probably more like “to be clear” but we don’t really say that as much as “to know” or “to understand” even though those are not intransitive verbs here.

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