Why isn't this passive?

[andycarmenjapanese8100]

LIS6L16:

Ā, hokkaidō ni itta n da. Tanoshikatta yo. Demo.... keisatsu ni tsukamacchatta n da.
Yeah, we went to Hokkaido. It was fun. But...I got caught by the police.

The "watashi wa" is implied.

"Watashi wa, keisatsu ni tsukamararecchata n da."
I was caught by the police.

When is it acceptable to use a non-passive verb in a passive sentence?

[thegooseking]

Andy-san,

The verb here isn't tsukamaeru, because in no conjugation would the 'e' be cut out. In this conjugation it would be tsukamaechatta.

It's in fact tsukamaru, which means "to be arrested". Formally this becomes tsukamatte shimatta, which is casually abbreviated to tsukamacchatta.

So the answer is that it doesn't use passive grammar because the verb has a passive sense as is.

小狼

[community.japanese]

Andy-san, 子狼さん、
kon'nichiwa!
Thank you very much for the perfect explanation, 子狼さん

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com