追い払う

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 追い払う, read おいはらう, means to drive something away or dispel it.
• Basic usage: Use it both for physically driving birds away and figuratively dispelling a gloomy mood.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Pursuing and driving away
  • 追う can describe following after something, while 追い払う focuses on making it leave.
• The target and the means
  • In the example 鳥を音で追い払った, を marks what is driven away, and で marks the means used.
• Past form
  • In the past form 追い払った, the final う becomes った.