The passive form
In this lesson, you will learn the passive form. The passive form is used when the person or thing towards whom or which the action is performed becomes the subject of the sentence, and not the object anymore. For instance, Reina threw the ball, is active. The ball was thrown by Reina, is passive.
The passive form is highly used in Japanese, unlike English which focuses more on the active form. At the end of this lesson, you will be able to use the passive form.
The passive form in Japanese has the same principle; we want to make the person towards whom the action is performed the subject of the sentence. Thus, it will pass from being the object to being the subject of the sentence. Since the subject and object are followed by particles, it will be necessary to change the particle in accordance with what we want to express.
The passive form is rather simple to make; we will make a distinction between ichidan verbs, godan verbs and irregular verbs.
・ Ichidan verbs
For ichidan verbs, simply replace the final る syllable with られる.
食べる ➝ 食べ ➝ 食べられる
出る ➝ 出 ➝ 出られる
見る ➝ 見 ➝ 見られる
Be careful with ichidan verbs, because the passive form is almost identical to the potential form. Thus, 食べられる can mean 'can eat' or 'is eaten'. This is why for the potential form for ichidan verb, it is better to not use the syllable ら and simply say 食べれる.
・ Godan verbs
To conjugate godan verbs in the passive form, we will need to change the 'u' sound to a 'a' sound and plug in the ending れる.
買う ➝ 買わ ➝ 買われる
書く ➝ 書か ➝ 書かれる
話す ➝ 話さ ➝ 話される
待つ ➝ 待た ➝ 待たれる
読む ➝ 読ま ➝ 読まれる
・ Irregular verbs
する ➝ される
くる ➝ こられる
Passive form: transitive and intransitive verbs
It is possible to conjugate transitive and intransitive verbs in the passive form. When an intransitive verb is conjugated in the passive form, we call this form 'indirect passive'.
One example of intransitive verb is 降る (to rain, to snow). This is an intransitive verb, because it doesn't need an object complement. It is possible to put it in the passive form.
私たちは雨に降られた。
Watashi tachi wa ame ni furareta.
It rained on us.
In this sentence, the action of raining is experience by us.
The passive form doesn't work all the time however. There are some instances where it is better to use the active form. This is the case for this sentence:
ミルクはあかちゃんに飲まれた。
Miruku wa akachan ni nomareta.
The milk was drunk by the baby.
This sentence will sound better in the active form.
To better understand how the passive voice is done, let's take a look at some examples!
猫がネズミを食べた。
Neko ga nezumi o tabeta.
This sentence is in the active voice, because the cat ate the mouse. The cat is the subject and the mouse is the object. This is clear by the use of the particles が and を. To make this sentence in the passive voice, we will want to make 'mouse' the subject. To do this, we only need to put the particle が to ネズミ.
However, the cat cannot be indicated by the particle を since を is an object particle and the cat in this context won't be the object. In the passive form, 猫 will take on the particle に to indicate that the mouse was eaten by the cat.
ネズミが猫に食べられた。
Nezumi ga neko ni taberareta.
The passive voice in Japanese can be used for many reasons. It can be used to indicate that something happens to the subject as a result of an external action. This is the most common situation where you will see the passive voice being used.
It can be used to describe a general reality.
この料理は東北地方で食べられます。
Kono ryouri wa Touhoku chihou de taberaremasu.
This dish is eaten in the Tohoku area.
When we don't know or don't want to specify who performed the action, we can use the passive voice.
新しいペンキが塗られた壁
Atarashii penki ga nurareta kabe
The wall that has been painted
The passive voice can also be used to indicate feelings. When someone does something that causes you problems or that affects you in a negative way, then you can use the passive form to show this emphasis without additional words. In fact, a lot of the times, people will use the passive voice to show that something negative has been done to them.
Martha hurt me. Versus. I was hurt by Martha.
Direct versus indirect passive
In direct passives, the effect that the action has on the experiencer is very obvious, because it is done directly to them.
ゆきとさんにキスされた。
Yukito-san ni kisu sareta.
I was kissed by Yukito-san.
In this example, the action of 'kiss' is done directly to me. This is exactly the same as in English.
ネズミが猫に食べられた。
Nezumi ga neko ni taberareta.
The mouse was eaten by the cat.
This is another direct passive. It is clear the action of being eaten was done to the mouse.
The indirect passive is trickier for English people to grasp, because there is no perfect equivalent in English. The passive voice is seldom used in English, yet along, an indirect passive is almost never seen in the English language. The indirect passive is used to express that someone did something, and this had an effect on me. The action has shifted from 'to me' to 'on me'. This is used a lot to make complaint about things. The near English equivalent would be 'I cannot believe X was done on me'.
As mentioned, the indirect passive is not used in English, so the translation won't be 100 percent the same.
Imagine that you are waiting for the bus. You are standing close to an old man. The old man is smoking and he doesn't really pay attention where he is blowing the smoke. And then, he blows smoke right at you. In Japanese, you can say:
(あのおじさんに)タバコを吸われた。
Ano ojisan ni tabako o suwareta.
I got smoked on (by that man).
In this example, the action is 'smoking' and the doer of the action is the 'old man'. What get smoked is the cigarette, not the experiencer, me in this situation. The passive voice implies that this act of smoking was done to me and that the experience was a negative one.
Since most of the indirect passive sentences are formed with verbs that are intentional (meaning someone intentionally does something to me), the doer of this action that the verb represents will be a person, and not an object. Thus, sentences like this one will sound very weird:
本に頭に落ちられた。
Hon ni atama ni ochirareta.
My head was fallen on by a book.
For this, we prefer using the active voice: 'a book fell on my head'.
However, it seems that with weather related verbs sentences like this are acceptable.
突然雨に降られた。
Totsuzen ame ni furareta.
I got rained on suddenly.
Marking the doer with に, から or によって
The particle に usually marks the doer in passive voice sentences, but it can sometimes be replaced by から or によって. If both the doer and the experiencer are people, we can either use に or から.
たいがにきれいと言われた。
Taiga ni kirei to iwareta.
I got told by Taiga I was pretty.
たがからきれいと言われた。
Taiga kara kirei to iwareta.
Both of these sentences are correct, because Taiga and myself are people. However, if the doer is not a person, only に works.
友達が車にはねられた。
Tomodachi ga kuruma ni hanerareta.
My friend got hit by a car.
In this case, 'car' is a thing, so から would not work. The same rule would apply if you were stung by a wasp.
スズメバチに刺された。
Suzumebachi ni sasareta.
I was stung by a wasp.
Also, the particle に is more appropriate when the action is done to an object, or when it is indirect passive.
娘に落書きされた。
Musume ni rakugaki sareta.
This was scribbled (graffitied) by my daughter.
泥俸に携帯をとられた。
Dorobou ni keitai o torareta.
My cellphone was taken by a thief.
If you are talking about something that is made from something, you should use から instead.
このお酒は芋から作られている。
Kono osake wa imo kara tsukurareteiru.
This sake is made of potato.
によって is used in more formal settings.