57671
From [this
article](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011383361000/k10011383361000.html):

> 映像はドローンを使って空から撮りました。  
>  The images were taken from the sky using a drone.

Whilst the meaning is clear, I find this sentence very awkward. I can't write
the sentence in a natural way in English using the active voice. If I had to
write it in the active voice it would be:

> A drone took the pictures from the sky using a drone.

which obviously sounds ridiculous.

Presumably the topic of the sentence 映像 is intended to be the object of 撮る.
That leaves us with ドローン as the implied subject of 撮る. But this subject is
only introduced in the previous clause ドローンを使って, so it feels very premature
that I should imply it as the subject in the following verb.

I'm struggling to express my confusion. Can someone correct any errors in my
grammatical understanding or offer a more illuminating viewpoint on how to
parse the sentence?

I know there's no good reason why I should be able to force the voices to
match between the two languages, but I would certainly never have been able to
formulate this Japanese sentence myself. Any insights would be appreciated.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-01T18:12:34.733
57670
2022-09-30T05:56:13.753
2018-04-01T18:26:40.923
7944
7944
question
grammar parsing passive-voice
Introducing a subject and implying it in the same sentence
I don't think ドローン is the implied subject. In fact, there _is_ no specific
implied subject; the article never specifies who took the pictures using a
drone.

In English, we can't leave out the subject in a main declarative clause. Your
intuition is probably telling you to use the passive because that lets you
avoid specifying the agent in English, and it's not specified in Japanese. But
in Japanese the subject can be omitted from an active clause as well, so the
original sentence is fine in the active voice.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-01T18:45:54.590
57671
2018-04-01T18:45:54.590
57670
answer