My textbook just taught me about っぱなし and how it indicates that X wasn't followed by Y as it is usually expected. It also taught me that this expresses that this fact is perceived negatively by the speaker.

What it didn't explicitely teach me is how it functions syntactically ^^ So far, I noticed that it is only used in this way:

Subject + が + verbっぱなし

Example: あの家は留守らしい。洗濯物4,5日前から干しっぱなしだ。

This pattern even extended into sentences like this one: 1週間前から階段の前にバイクが置きっぱなしにしてある。

where the verb in use 置く confuses me a bit since I only encountered it in the pattern

subject + を + 置く

In addition, whatever rules the things coming AFTER っぱなし follow is still kind of a mystery for me. I frequently see っぱなし　being followed by the copula as in my first example.

However sometimes it is also followed by something like in example 2. I would guess now that っぱなし is a noun? In this case, from a grammatical point of view, both the copula and the example 2 case would be viable I guess? If it should be the case that っぱなし is a noun I would expect a fixed set of particles being required for constructions like in example2 since the


complex feels like in the function of an attribute or adverb here, and therefore I'd usually expect something like の or に.


Simply, ～っぱなし follows a masu-stem and works as a no-adjective. You can say 干しっぱなしの洗濯物 and 置きっぱなしのバイク.

Other examples:

  1. 開けっぱなしの窓を見た。
  2. その窓は開けっぱなしだ。
  3. 窓が開けっぱなしにしてある。
  4. 窓を開けっぱなしにする。
  5. 窓を開けっぱなしにしてある。

Sentences 4 and 5 are also okay. They partially look like ordinary ～を開ける, but actually they are using the ～を～にする construction. That is, 窓 is the object of する, not 開ける. I believe you are already familiar with this pattern because you have asked about this before.

  1. バイク置きっぱなしにしてある。
  2. (私は)バイク置きっぱなしにしてある。

Sentence 6 focuses on the current status of 置きっぱなし, and thus typically means "there is an automobile left (by someone)". Remember the most basic meaning of が, introducing something into the universe of discourse. Sentence 7 involves the state change because of the ～を～にする pattern. It typically means "I have left my automobile (somewhere, for a certain purpose)".

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