Function of で in this sentence: 「入れ違いで亜美さんが出て行ったところです」


Back again with another question about で in this sentence:

> さっき入れ違いで亜美さんが出て行ったところです。

Which supposedly translates to "You just missed Ami as she went out."

From my understanding of で, it may serve three functions:

  1. To indicate the location where an action is happening
  2. To indicate means
  3. Used as a conjunction to connect clauses

However, I seem to be confused with this one, since it modifies 入れ違い which
does not seem to fit the functions listed.

Or I guess it may be (1) since it sort of says where the action is happening
(i.e. while they're passing by), but I'm not too confident.

Is my understanding of it correct?




Your hunch is pretty close. In this case it indicates situational context.

> 入れ違い **で** 亜美さんが出て行ったところです。  
>  Ami was going out **as** we walked by each other.




Your hunch is pretty close. In this case it indicates situational context.

> 入れ違い **で** 亜美さんが出て行ったところです。  
>  Ami was going out **as** we walked by each other.

