Passive
The passive voice in Japanese is by far one of the most confusing pieces of grammar for learners of Japanese, and even sometimes for more advanced learners. Its meaning includes: “being done” “got done” “is being done” . It could be more appropriately thought of as “the receiving form” of a verb.
General Passive
Get done to
Ichidan – stem + られる
Godan – stem ＋ ない stem + れる
Irregular – する→される ・ くる→こられる
To sum up the passive very simply, it stresses something being done to something else. It changes the verb’s meaning into a state of receiving the action. This means these sentences are closer to state descriptions than verbs, and tend to use が rather than を. (“A is B” type sentence)
Object/subjectが Passive verb (state)
Examples
- 本を読まれる → 本が読まれる – Books are read.
- 肉が食べられる – Meat is ate (eaten).
- 彼は鹿が殺されるところを見た – He saw the deer getting killed.
- 鹿が殺されていた – Deer were getting killed.
- 人が殺されている – People are getting killed.
- 鹿は殺された – (The) Deer got killed. (was killed).
Comparison
- 鹿を殺した – Killed (a) deer.
- 鹿が死んだ – (A) deer died.
- 鹿が殺された – (A) deer got killed.
- 鹿が殺される – (A) deer will be killed/are killed.
Specific Passive
Get (Y) done by X
XにYをPassive verb
This is sometimes called the “suffering” passive or indirect passive*.
Remember when I said it was the receiving form? Well, guess what, it also functions like もらう with に.
You may use に with the passive to indicate who or what “gave” the action. Using に to name an source tends to make it about a specific incidence; and tends to give the sentence a negative or “suffering” connotation, but not always.
が may revert back to を depending on where you want to place emphasis.
*While the passive can be used to express negative feelings, the “suffering passive” doesn’t really exist, it is instead a consequence of it’s meaning. Please see this post by Tae Kim for another explanation.
Examples
- 彼に車が盗まれた – (someone) car was stolen by him. (by him, car was stolen)
- 彼にラーメンを食べられた – (I) got my ramen ate by him.
- 彼にラーメンが食べられた – (My) Ramen got ate by him.
- 彼女にふられた – (I) got dumped by her.
- 子供に死なれた – Got died on by a child /The child died on them
- (人々に)天才と呼ばれた – Was called a genius by people. – The に part is not needed as it is implied.
- 親に助けられた – Got saved by my parents.
Respectful Passive
The passive voice has one more use, which is to make a type of そんけいご (respectful) form word. This form is identical to other passive forms; and everything except the verb in the sentence will stay the same. It’s simple verb substitution.
- すしを食べられました – Ate sushi
- 猫を飼われました – Is keeping a cat (as a pet)
- 薬を飲まれました – Drank medicine.
See also: Keigo verbs