2024/10/18
Today I tried an Anki deck and tried to learn from the example sentances that confused me. Because of that, I feel like I understand に much better now.
その人には二回会った。
twice met. (There's no が particle, so I can't
say for sure if it's "I" twice met, or
"that dog" twice met, or "those guys" twice met.
So here, I simply wrote "twice met," even though
it's not a proper English sentence.)
Because 会った is an intransitive verb, it does not have an object - it CAN'T have an object. Which is why the に particle is used to say, "in the location of this person." If the verb WAS transitive, the sentence would be this:
その人を二回会った。
But it ISN't transitive. It can't use を to take "that person" as the object, because intransitive verbs CAN'T have objects. Oh, and by the way, there is indeed a subject to this sentence. It's presumably "I," which would be marked with が, but it's hidden in this particular sentence.
So remember, kids (Read; "me") - If a verb is intransitive and you want to have an object (in the example case, the person you met with), use に! Now then, let's just HOPE this works in other circumstances and not just ones where people meet together.... Ahhh....