> そんな彼女が、普通に笑う **ところを** 、一目でいいから見てみたかったーーと。

Hi. How should I understand the ところを? I have searched a lot about the
explanation of the construction ところを but none of them fits the context.

Thank you.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-13T17:09:36.260
83071
2020-12-13T18:52:30.300
36662
question
grammar
Help understand the ところを?
Since I don't know if you fully understand ところ or not, I will give a short
explanation of that first. 所【ところ】often means place, but this is also used in
an abstract way to show:

  * A specific place, spot, or position
  * show time in phrases like 今のところ
  * mean "just about to" with non-past verbs
  * mean "just been done" with past-tense verbs

So generally, ところ just means "place" or "time" either in a concrete or
abstract way. However, when particles are added to the end of ところ, we get
slightly different meanings. In your case, AところをB, it means "although usually
A happens, B happened". It shows something unexpected.

Since there's not much context, I can only give you a partial translation:

> そんな彼女が、普通に笑うところを [...]  
>  In a situation where people would usually laugh, [she did something else]

Do not confuse these with when ところ is being used literally. For example, in
this sentence, を is just being used to mark ところ as the object of みる:

> 悪いところをみる。 To look at the bad parts.

There are other combinations of ところ as well:

  * ところ（へ・に） = shows coincidence
  * ところが = means "but" and also shows something unexpected
  * ところで = Creates a hypothetical or shows a situation

Related Post: [Does ところを always mean the same thing as のに? What is the
difference between ところへ and
ところに?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/19173/does-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D%E3%82%92-always-
mean-the-same-thing-as-%E3%81%AE%E3%81%AB-what-is-the-difference-
between-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D%E3%81%B8)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-13T18:39:51.890
83072
2020-12-13T18:52:30.300
2020-12-13T18:52:30.300
21657
21657
83071
answer