入らない versus 入れない in a JLPT question


This question is in my JLPT practise book:

> このチームの試合{しあい}の切符{きっぷ}はなかなか手{て}に_ ** ___ _**_ない。
>
> **A** 取{と}れ **B** 入{はい}れ **C** 入{はい}ら **D** 持{も}て

My translation is, "I can't easily get the tickets to this team's games".

Well, that's sort of my translation. This issue is that according to the book,
the correct answer is **C** , but I chose **B**.

It seems to me more normal to use `入{はい}れない`, as in "I **can't** get the
tickets", instead of `入{はい}らない` which I think would mean "I **don't** get the
tickets."

I have a sneaking suspicion that `手{て}に入{はい}らない` is some kind of special case,
but it's not clear in the book's explanatory notes.

Can someone break down why `入{はい}らない` is right and `入{はい}れない` is wrong?




I'm pretty sure that here 手に入れる is てに入{い}れる. I don't know if it is ever used
as てに入{はい}れる because this seems like it would be confusing, but if it is, this
is rare. That being said I think you do hear 入{はい}（ら）れない as "it won't fit",
but someone should check me on this). 手に入れる means to obtain, just like 入{はい}る,
so I needed to search to find an answer to your question. Apparently, the
nuance with 手に入れる is that it is difficult and/or more effort was made to
obtain, and that 手に入る is with not so much effort, such as finding something
and picking it up, or being given something, etc.

That being said 手に入れる can be a result of luck, such as winning the lottery,
but this is considered something that is difficult to obtain. The example that
helps me remember is in RPG games when it uses 経験値を手に入れた after defeating
monsters (requiring effort), to mean "obtained experience points". You will
probably never see 手に入った in this case.

For this problem, we should assume that the speaker is just saying "it's hard
to get tickets for this team" in the general case - that is, without spending
some great deal of effort.

On top of this, なかなか手に入らない is a common saying in my experience and backed by
google - it gets 24 million hits vs なかなか手に入れない and also has a definition in
alc as 'hard to find/be rare to get/be always unavailable' vs the other's 300k
hits on google (using quotes of course) with no entries in alc.

Lastly, for completeness, here's an excerpt I found on the web that explains
the two use cases in Japanese. From [this Lang-8
entry](http://lang-8.com/231058/journals/800177/%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588):

> あ、ききわすれた、"手に入れる"と"手に入る"は違いますか？
>
> Feb 09th 2011 17:46 aico
>
> すごいギャンブラー精神だ！  
>  中国の人もギャンブル好きだよね。世界中のカジノって中国人客がすごく多いみたい。
>
> あ、ききわすれた、"手に入れる"と"手に入る"は違いますか？
>
> 何かを「獲得」という意味では同じだけど、
>
> 手に入れる<<何か努力や行動を起こして獲得。  
>  ・ロトで10億円手に入れる為にすべての財産をなげうってロトを買った。
>
> 手に入る<<誰かにもらったなど特に行動を起こさず勝手に獲得。  
>  ・美味しい皮蛋が手に入ったよ〜。台湾人の友達がお土産でくれたんだ。




I'm pretty sure that here 手に入れる is てに入{い}れる. I don't know if it is ever used
as てに入{はい}れる because this seems like it would be confusing, but if it is, this
is rare. That being said I think you do hear 入{はい}（ら）れない as "it won't fit",
but someone should check me on this). 手に入れる means to obtain, just like 入{はい}る,
so I needed to search to find an answer to your question. Apparently, the
nuance with 手に入れる is that it is difficult and/or more effort was made to
obtain, and that 手に入る is with not so much effort, such as finding something
and picking it up, or being given something, etc.

That being said 手に入れる can be a result of luck, such as winning the lottery,
but this is considered something that is difficult to obtain. The example that
helps me remember is in RPG games when it uses 経験値を手に入れた after defeating
monsters (requiring effort), to mean "obtained experience points". You will
probably never see 手に入った in this case.

For this problem, we should assume that the speaker is just saying "it's hard
to get tickets for this team" in the general case - that is, without spending
some great deal of effort.

On top of this, なかなか手に入らない is a common saying in my experience and backed by
google - it gets 24 million hits vs なかなか手に入れない and also has a definition in
alc as 'hard to find/be rare to get/be always unavailable' vs the other's 300k
hits on google (using quotes of course) with no entries in alc.

Lastly, for completeness, here's an excerpt I found on the web that explains
the two use cases in Japanese. From [this Lang-8
entry](http://lang-8.com/231058/journals/800177/%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588):

> あ、ききわすれた、"手に入れる"と"手に入る"は違いますか？
>
> Feb 09th 2011 17:46 aico
>
> すごいギャンブラー精神だ！  
>  中国の人もギャンブル好きだよね。世界中のカジノって中国人客がすごく多いみたい。
>
> あ、ききわすれた、"手に入れる"と"手に入る"は違いますか？
>
> 何かを「獲得」という意味では同じだけど、
>
> 手に入れる<<何か努力や行動を起こして獲得。  
>  ・ロトで10億円手に入れる為にすべての財産をなげうってロトを買った。
>
> 手に入る<<誰かにもらったなど特に行動を起こさず勝手に獲得。  
>  ・美味しい皮蛋が手に入ったよ〜。台湾人の友達がお土産でくれたんだ。

