Help understand the ところを?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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?