The passive

English uses the passive to move the interesting thing to the front of the sentence. Japanese does that with は and has done since the beginner course, so its passive is free to do something else, and what it mostly does is say that an event was to somebody's detriment. That second use has no English equivalent and is the reason this lesson exists.

Building the passive

For a group 1 verb, move the final kana of the dictionary form to the あ row and add れる. That is the same shift as the ない form, which you have had since the first lesson, so the two forms sit side by side.

The う column keeps the same irregularity in both: う becomes わ, not あ.

Group 2 replaces る with られる: 食たべられる, 見みられる. The irregulars give される and 来こられる.

That gives group 2 verbs a form doing three jobs, since 食たべられる is also the potential and, as the next lesson but one will show, the honorific. Context separates them, and the fact that group 1 verbs keep them apart, 読よめる against 読よまれる, is a large part of why ら抜ぬき exists.

Every passive verb is itself a group 2 verb, so 書かかれる conjugates as 書かかれない, 書かかれた, 書かかれて, exactly like 食たべる.

Example. Give the passive of 叱しかる, 使つかう, 見みる and する.

叱しかられる, 使つかわれる, 見みられる, される. The first is a group 1 る verb, so る moves to ら; the second is a う verb and takes わ rather than あ; the third is group 2 and takes られる; する is irregular and becomes される, which is worth noting because it makes every noun plus する verb passive for free: 発表はっぴょうされる, 説明せつめいされる, 使用しようされる.

Now you. Give the passive of 聞きく, 笑わらう, 呼よぶ and 来くる, and say which two forms look identical to something else you have learned.

The direct passive

In the ordinary passive, the person affected becomes the subject and the actor is marked with に.

先生せんせいにほめられました sensei ni homeraremashita I was praised by the teacher

母ははに叱しかられた haha ni shikarareta I got told off by my mother

に is the default marker for the actor. から appears instead with verbs of communication and origin, where the sense is closer to "from": みんなから愛あいされている, loved by everybody. And によって is the formal marker used when the actor is the creator of something: この絵えはピカソによって描かかれた.

Notice that both example sentences are about an unpleasant experience, and that is not an accident. The Japanese passive leans towards things you would rather had not happened, so a sentence like 先生せんせいにほめられました carries a very slight undertone that the praise was awkward or unexpected. If you simply want to report that the teacher praised you, the active 先生せんせいがほめてくれました, with the favour verb from four lessons ago, is warmer and much commoner.

The passive of things, and where it came from

Japanese also has a passive with an inanimate subject, and it is the one that looks most like the English passive.

この小説しょうせつは百年ひゃくねん前まえに書かかれました kono shousetsu wa hyakunen mae ni kakaremashita this novel was written a hundred years ago

会議かいぎは毎週まいしゅう開ひらかれます kaigi wa maishuu hirakaremasu the meeting is held every week

This construction belongs to written and formal Japanese: newspapers, academic writing, announcements. Its history is worth knowing. Classical Japanese used it very little, and the modern habit of putting inanimate things in the subject of a passive grew substantially during the Meiji period, under the pressure of translating European texts. The older instinct was to use an intransitive verb instead, and that instinct is still alive: a speaker will say 会議かいぎが始はじまりました rather than 始はじめられました unless the point is specifically that somebody started it.

The practical consequence for a learner is a warning. English speakers reach for this passive constantly, and in speech it makes Japanese sound like a translated document. In conversation, prefer the intransitive verb of the previous lesson, or an active sentence with は on the interesting thing.

When the event was not yours

Here is the construction English cannot copy. Japanese can put in the subject of a passive somebody who was not a participant in the event at all, and the meaning is that the event affected them, almost always badly. Grammarians call it the 迷惑めいわくの受身うけみ, the passive of nuisance.

雨あめに降ふられて、ぬれてしまいました ame ni furarete, nurete shimaimashita I got rained on and ended up soaked

Look at what has happened. 降ふる is intransitive: rain falls, and there is no object for a passive to promote. English cannot passivise "it rained" at all. Japanese can, and the resulting sentence has a subject, the speaker, who takes no part in the raining and is simply the person it happened to.

友ともだちに来こられて、勉強べんきょうできませんでした tomodachi ni korarete, benkyou dekimasen deshita a friend came round, and I couldn't get any work done

Compare 友ともだちが来きました, which reports a visit neutrally, or 友ともだちが来きてくれました, which treats it as a kindness. The passive says the visit was an imposition, and it says so without a single word meaning "unfortunately". Learning to hear this is a large step in understanding spoken Japanese, because speakers use it to complain without complaining.

Example. Your neighbour smoked and you had to put up with it. Say it two ways and compare.

隣となりの人ひとがタバコを吸すいました reports the fact and says nothing about you. 隣となりの人ひとにタバコを吸すわれて、困こまりました puts you in the subject slot of a passive built on an event you had no part in, and thereby says the smoking was done to you. Note the particles carefully: the neighbour moves from が to に, and タバコ keeps its を, because it is still the thing that was smoked. This is the shape to memorise.

Now you. A colleague read your email over your shoulder, and you were not happy about it. Say it with the adversative passive.

The を that stays

That last point deserves its own section because it is where most learners go wrong. When the thing affected belongs to you, it keeps を and does not become the subject.

電車でんしゃで足あしを踏ふまれました densha de ashi o fumaremashita somebody trod on my foot on the train

財布さいふを取とられました saifu o toraremashita I had my wallet taken

English promotes the foot: "my foot was trodden on". Japanese promotes you, leaves the foot as the object, and never mentions whose foot it is, because the passive has already said. 私わたしの足あしが踏ふまれました is grammatical and sounds like a forensic report.

The test is ownership. If what was affected is a part of you or a possession of yours, the passive subject is you and the possession keeps を. If it is an independent thing, the ordinary direct passive applies and it becomes the subject: この本ほんは多おおくの人ひとに読よまれています.

Example. Somebody stole your bicycle. Give the two possible sentences and say which you would use.

自転車じてんしゃを盗ぬすまれました is what you would say, using the possessor passive: you are the subject, the bicycle keeps を, and the sentence is about what happened to you. 自転車じてんしゃが盗ぬすまれました is also correct and describes the theft from the outside, as a police report or a news item would. In practice, the first is what you say to a friend and the second is what appears in a notice about thefts in the area.

Now you. Your younger brother ate your cake. Say it as the adversative passive, and say what the neutral version would be.

When not to use it

Three habits carried over from English produce most of the wrong passives a learner writes, and all three have a fix already in this course.

The first is using a passive to avoid naming a person. Japanese has better tools for that: the intransitive verb of the previous lesson, and simply leaving the subject out, which Japanese does constantly and English cannot. 間違まちがいがありました, "there was a mistake", beats a passive and names nobody.

The second is using a passive to put the important thing first. That is what は is for, and it has been available since the beginner course. この本ほんはもう読よみました puts the book in front without touching the verb.

The third is passivising a verb of receiving or benefiting. English says "I was given a book" and Japanese has もらう and くれる for exactly that, so 本ほんをもらいました is the sentence, not a passive of あげる. Reaching for a passive here is a reliable sign of translating rather than composing.

What is left, once those three are gone, is the genuine business of the Japanese passive: reporting that something was done to you, usually to your cost, and the formal written passive of books, meetings and discoveries.

Vocabulary

The passive removes the actor. The next lesson does the opposite and adds one: a person who makes or lets somebody else act, and then, by combining the two, the form for being made to do something you did not want to do.