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-sare, sentence. Can someone explain?

26 Feb 2004
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Hi everyone, I haven't been here for a few weeks. I'm right at the end of Minna no Nihongo, chapter 49 and I've come across something I don't understand. In a reading exercise the sentence reads (sorry, I'm at work and I don't have Kanji installed on this PC)...
Toukyou daigaku o sotsugyousare, ooku no bungaku sakuhin o okaki ni narimashita.
He graduated Tokyo University, and came to write many works of literature.
But I don't understand the "sotsugyou-sare" ending. It's before a comma so it seems to me it should either be -sarete, or -sarimashite, a -te ending. I can't think of how it becomes a -sare, ending??
Can anyone explain it to me? Many thanks.
 
You are absolutely correct. It is a somewhat shortened version of sarete, which in this case is the "passive voice used to express politeness towards the subject of the sentence."

This writing convention, where they shorten -te forms of verbs is actually quite common, although it's a little strange at first.

Good luck!
 
it's common in (more formal) writing to link clauses using the stem form of a verb before the comma, the effect is the same as if you were to use the te form in speech.
 
Ah, as simple as that. The grammar part of Minna no Nihongo mentioned the -mashite form but made no mention of stems so when they used it in the text I was confused. That's great, thanks for clearing that up, I will sleep peacefully. :)
 
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