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I was reading a page about passive verbs in Japanese, and I came across the
phrase: "蚊に刺された。" What intrigued me is why the particle "に" is used in this
phrase, because when I read it and try to understand the sense, I understand
it as "Bit on the mosquito". It becomes even weirder if a pronoun is used, as
in "私が蚊に刺された" ("I was bit on the mosquito").

Why does it use "に" instead of another particle that, translating, would make
more sense and it would be like "I was bitten **by** a mosquito"? I think what
confuses me is that the phrase doesn't indicate that the person was bitten
**by** the mosquito. Instead of that, it has a "に" indicating that the
location of action is the mosquito instead of the person.

Could someone explain that to me?
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2014-10-03T23:23:51.567
18931
2017-02-28T09:03:15.917
2015-04-16T03:29:46.213
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particle-に phrases passive-voice
Can't understand why "に" is used in "蚊に刺された" or what's the sense of this sentence
The particle "に" can fulfil many distinct grammatical functions. In this case,
"に" does not mark a qualifier of time or place, but instead marks the
agent/source of a **passive** verb. As such, it would usually be translated in
English with the preposition "by":

> 私が刺された。

I was bitten/stung.

> 私が **蚊に** 刺された。

I was bitten **by a mosquito**.

See [this page](http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa090901a.htm) for an
overview of the most common use cases of the "に" particle.
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2014-10-03T23:54:30.430
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Little words like _by_ and に have lots of uses.

>   1. He was murdered **by his own doctor**!
>   2. She was sitting **by the tree** enjoying the sun.
>   3. I won the contest **by cheating**.
>   4. She bills **by the hour**.
>

In the first sentence, _by_ is used for the agent of a passive clause.  
In the second sentence, _by_ is used to express a location.  
In the third sentence, _by_ is used to express a way or means.  
In the fourth sentence, _by_ is used for a unit of measurement.

Although we may not realize it, little words like this have all sorts of
different uses! And the same is true for Japanese, where に is used lots of
different ways. It simply isn't accurate to say that に always indicates
location, any more than _by_ always indicates location.

**In your example, に indicates the agent of a passive clause, and that is
something it is very commonly used for that has nothing to do with location.**

Unfortunately, the little words like に and _by_ don't really match up very
well between languages, so you'll have to learn the various ways に is used in
Japanese without thinking of it as a translation of English _by_ (or _at_ ,
_to_ , _in_ , _on_ , _for_ , _with_ , etc.).
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2014-10-03T23:59:11.540
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蚊 **に** 刺された _does_ mean "I was bitten **by** a mosquito."

Passives in general work like this:

```

    **Active sentence:**  _actor_ -GA            _patient_ -WO _verb.stem_ - _verb.inflection_
    ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓
    **Passive sentence:** _patient_ -GA _actor_ -NI            _verb.stem_ - **are** - _verb.inflection_
```

So in your case:

```

    **Active sentence:**  ka-GA              (watasi-WO) sas-ita
    ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓
    **Passive sentence:** (watasi-GA) ka-NI              sas-are-ta
```
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2014-10-03T23:59:31.423
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There is an article on Wikipedia about Japanese possessives. Particle に is
used with ある and いる to indicate possession and there is a little explanation
about particle に .

Johnさんに車がある。John has a car. Literally it says _A car exists/is in/at john_.

The literal translation may sound strange since the possessor is indicated as
a place or location, but if you analyse it it may make sense. Particle に is
used in two basic senses: to indicate **target/destination** and to indicate
**location** and most other uses stem from these two. In the above sentence
particle に is being used in its locative sense (in/at) metaphorically, in
other words, particle に is showing the "area" that possess the car (John, John
is the area). As I said before, the locative use of particle に in a
metaphorical sense.

So, it could be the case that particle に used to indicate the agent in the
passive form is also being used in its locative sense metaphorically
identifying "the area" where the action originates.

蚊に刺された。 I was bitten by a mosquito.

Following this logic the literal translation would be _I was bitten in/at a
mosquito_. The "area" where the action of being bitten is already identified
(a mosquito) so now understanding what is being expressed and the context you
know that に is equivalent to _by_ for the passive case.

I hope this can help.
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answer