The term itself is indeed お目にかかる (I looked it up to double check), but every example sentence uses お目にかかれる, or some conjugated version of it. They don’t seem to be the potential form; do we know why this is? Is it just a form you always use? If so, I think that should be noted in the definition.
Edit: I asked a Japanese person and she said it’s just a weird rule that you conjugate the て form as お目にかかれて, and all the other sentences seem to use the potential. Either way, I feel like the original お目にかかる should appear in at least one sentence, and it should be noted that the て form is conjugated like that.
I think it is the potential form, although I could be wrong. So お目にかかれる would be more along the lines of ‘to be able to meet’, I’d imagine with the nuance of it’s a privilege/honour to be able to meet someone of your status
e.g. またお目にかかれる日が来るのを楽しみにしています。-> I look forward to when we’re able to meet again
But I agree that probably a note to add that it’s normally used in the potential form (or example sentences in the standard form if that’s not the case) should be in the description
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Yeah, all the ones that don’t use て form are like “I’m glad I could meet you,” etc.
But of all the て form ones, I’m not sure why unless it’s just a rule like I was told, kind of like how おっしゃる becomes not おっしゃります but おっしゃいます, contrary to the normal conjugation rules.
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I think again it just comes down to politeness/humbleness in choosing to use the potential, not a spelling thing
Like in the first example sentence, あなたにお目にかかれてとても嬉しいです
お目にかかってとても嬉しい - I think would place more emphasis on the action of meeting them, whilst the potential form adds an additional nuance of the meeting being a privilege that they are grateful for
One example of お目にかかる without potential form that you’ve probably heard many times, is the set (humble speech) expression
お初にお目にかかります。〇〇と申します。
It’s the staple of “protagonist meets royalty” in the stories with royalty. It is probably also proper modern day business etiquette (although I don’t work in Japan).
I also believe that in the provided example sentences れ is grammatically the good old potential form (to be able to meet). That’s also just a set way of using humble speech. I don’t think it’s a conjugation rule per se.
We can try to construct an example of a different conjugation and check it with a native speaker. How about volitional form:
国王にお目にかかろうとしたが、敵わなかった。
I’ve endeavored to get introduced to the king, but did not succeed.
Or てみる.
そういう方に一度お目にかかってみたいものだ。
I’d like to meet someone like that one day.
Thanks for the examples!
If it is possible to write it without conjugating it like that, I feel like they probably should have at least one sentence that has it in if not its plain form, than its polite form, just to give a good example.
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