Indirect Passive in Japanese

In Brief

The Japanese indirect passive (間接受身, kansetsu ukemi) makes the affected person the grammatical subject, even though the action is directed at something else—or has no direct object at all. 私は隣の人にタバコを吸われました means that the person next to me smoked and that this affected me, usually unpleasantly. English normally expresses this viewpoint with wording such as “I was bothered by…,” “I had someone…,” or “Unfortunately for me…,” rather than with a passive sentence.

Overview

In an ordinary passive, the subject directly receives an action: 私は先生に褒められました (“I was praised by my teacher”). In an indirect passive, the subject is not necessarily what the other person acts on. Instead, the sentence presents that person as affected by the whole event. In 私は彼女に泣かれました, nobody “cried me”; she cried, and her crying put me in a difficult or emotionally uncomfortable position.

This B2 pattern matters because a word-for-word English interpretation often sounds impossible. Japanese uses grammatical voice—the way a verb presents who acts and who is affected—to encode viewpoint. The subject, meaning the person or thing the sentence is organized around, is placed in the affected role; the original actor is usually marked by に; and the verb takes the same passive form used in the ordinary passive.

Indirect passives are often called adversity passives or suffering passives (迷惑の受身, meiwaku no ukemi) because they commonly suggest annoyance, inconvenience, loss, or emotional impact. That nuance is strong, but context still determines the exact feeling. The construction says “this event affected the subject”; surrounding words such as 困る (“be troubled”) or the situation itself make the negative evaluation especially clear.

How It Works

The core pattern

The most useful model is:

[affected person] は／が + [actor or cause] に + [object] を + passive verb

The object is included only when the original active sentence has one.

Japanese pattern	English meaning	Role
私は	as for me	affected person and topic
隣の人に	by the person next to me	actor, marked by に
タバコを	a cigarette	object of 吸う, still marked by を
吸われました	smoked, affecting me	passive verb

Put together: 私は隣の人にタバコを吸われました。 The underlying event is 隣の人がタバコを吸いました (“The person next to me smoked”). The indirect passive adds 私 as the person affected, changes the actor’s が to に, and changes 吸いました to 吸われました.

That derivation can be summarized as follows:

Sentence	English	Viewpoint
隣の人がタバコを吸いました。	The person next to me smoked.	Neutral report of the event
私は隣の人にタバコを吸われました。	I was bothered by the person next to me smoking.	The event is presented through its effect on me

English speakers are sometimes tempted to translate the passive form by inserting “was” before the English verb. Do not do that mechanically. First identify the underlying event, then ask who was affected by it.

Forming the passive verb

The indirect and direct passives use exactly the same verb forms.

Verb class	Formation	Active	Passive
Godan (consonant-stem)	Change the final u-row kana to the corresponding a-row kana + れる	吸う	吸われる
Godan ending in う	う becomes わ + れる	買う	買われる
Godan	Change final kana to a-row + れる	踏む	踏まれる
Ichidan (vowel-stem)	Remove る + られる	食べる	食べられる
Irregular	Memorize	する	される
Irregular	Memorize	来る（くる）	来られる（こられる）

The passive form conjugates like an ichidan verb: 泣かれる (non-past), 泣かれた (past), 泣かれない (negative), and 泣かれています (progressive/resulting situation). Politeness does not change the sentence pattern: 泣かれました is simply the polite past form.

With a transitive verb

A transitive verb is a verb that acts on an object—someone or something marked by を in a typical active sentence. In an indirect passive, that object can remain marked by を:

弟が私のケーキを食べた。
“My younger brother ate my cake.”

私は弟にケーキを食べられた。
“My younger brother ate my cake on me.” / “I had my cake eaten by my younger brother.”

The second sentence foregrounds my loss or frustration. This is a major difference from a basic English passive such as “The cake was eaten,” where cake becomes the subject.

With an intransitive verb

An intransitive verb describes an event without taking a direct object, such as 泣く (“cry”), 死ぬ (“die”), or 降る (“fall,” of rain or snow). Japanese can form indirect passives from these verbs:

• 赤ちゃんに泣かれた。 — “The baby cried on me / I was troubled by the baby crying.”
• 雨に降られた。 — “I got caught in the rain.”
• 父に死なれた。 — “My father died, leaving me deeply affected.”

This possibility is one reason the construction has no neat English passive equivalent. “I was cried by the baby” is not grammatical English, but 赤ちゃんに泣かれた is natural Japanese.

With weather, 雨に降られる is a fixed and common way to present rain as an unwelcome event. The person affected may be stated—私は雨に降られた—or omitted when understood.

The possessor passive

A closely related pattern describes an action done to something associated with the affected person, especially a body part, possession, or family member:

私は電車で隣の人に足を踏まれました。
“Someone next to me stepped on my foot on the train.”

Japanese normally keeps the affected person as the topic and the body part as the object: 私は…足を…. Replacing this with 私の足が踏まれました is grammatically possible as a direct passive, but it shifts attention to the foot and sounds less like the ordinary personal account of what happened.

Particles and omitted subjects

Use は when presenting the affected person as the topic and が when identifying or focusing that person. In conversation, 私 is often omitted:

• 隣の人にタバコを吸われました。 — “The person next to me smoked, and it affected me.”
• 子供に熱を出されて、仕事に行けませんでした。 — “My child got a fever, so I couldn’t go to work.”

The omitted affected person is recovered from context. The actor or cause normally takes に, not によって. によって is common in formal direct passives that identify an agent—such as an invention made by a scientist—but it does not normally express the personal, affected viewpoint of this construction.

Examples in Context

Japanese	English	Note
隣の人にタバコを吸われました。	I was bothered by the person next to me smoking.	The cigarette is not smoked “at” the speaker; the whole event affects them.
彼女に泣かれて困りました。	I was troubled by her crying.	困りました makes the adverse effect explicit.
子供に熱を出されて、仕事に行けませんでした。	My child got a fever, so I couldn’t go to work.	The child did not act intentionally; the situation still affected the parent.
電車で隣の人に足を踏まれました。	The person next to me stepped on my foot on the train.	Possessor passive: 足 remains marked by を.
弟にケーキを全部食べられた。	My younger brother ate all my cake on me.	Implies loss or annoyance.
友達に秘密をみんなに話されてしまった。	My friend went and told everyone my secret.	てしまった reinforces regret.
夜中に赤ちゃんに泣かれて、ほとんど眠れなかった。	The baby cried during the night, so I could hardly sleep.	An intransitive verb in the passive.
帰り道で雨に降られました。	I got caught in the rain on the way home.	Natural English uses “got caught,” not a literal passive.
旅行の前日に犬に病気になられた。	My dog got sick the day before the trip, putting me in a difficult situation.	The passive highlights the owner’s predicament.
忙しいときに同僚に休まれると困ります。	It is difficult when a coworker takes time off while we are busy.	と困る describes a recurring or possible problem.
大事な会議中に携帯電話に鳴られて焦った。	My phone rang during an important meeting, and I panicked.	A nonhuman cause can be construed as affecting the speaker, though 携帯電話が鳴って is more neutral.
若いころに父に死なれ、母が一人で私たちを育てた。	My father died when we were young, and my mother raised us alone.	A serious lasting effect; not mere irritation.

Common Mistakes

Turning every English passive into an indirect passive

• Wrong for a neutral fact: この橋は有名な建築家に建てられて困りました。
• Right: この橋は有名な建築家によって建てられました。
• Why: A neutral direct passive makes この橋 the receiver of the action. 困りました requires an experiencer and invents an inappropriate personal problem. Use the indirect passive only when the sentence adopts an affected person’s viewpoint.

Removing を from the original object

• Wrong: 私は弟にケーキが食べられました。
• Right: 私は弟にケーキを食べられました。
• Why: In the underlying event, 弟がケーキを食べる, cake is the object. When 私 becomes the affected topic, ケーキを remains the object. A sentence with ケーキが食べられた instead treats the cake as the subject of a direct passive.

Translating the form word for word

• Misleading: 雨に降られた → “I was rained by rain.”
• Natural: 雨に降られた → “I got caught in the rain.”
• Why: The Japanese grammar encodes an affected viewpoint that English usually expresses lexically—with words such as “got caught,” “had,” or “was bothered.” Translate the situation, not each marker separately.

Treating に as the affected person

• Wrong role analysis: In 私は子供に泣かれた, treating 子供 as the person inconvenienced.
• Right analysis: 私 is affected; 子供 is the one who cried.
• Why: In the usual pattern, は／が marks the affected participant and に marks the actor or cause.

Assuming the actor intended harm

• Wrong assumption: 子供に熱を出された means the child deliberately caused trouble.
• Right interpretation: The child developed a fever, and this created difficulty for the speaker.
• Why: The construction describes impact, not intention or blame. Context and tone may sound resentful, sympathetic, or simply weary.

Using the pattern when no meaningful effect is understood

• Unnatural without context: 私は公園で鳥に飛ばれました。
• Better neutral report: 公園で鳥が飛びました。 — “A bird flew in the park.”
• Why: An indirect passive invites the listener to infer a consequence for the subject. Add a context that makes the effect plausible, or use an active sentence for a neutral observation.

Usage Notes

Adversity is common, but its strength varies

The label “adversity passive” can make every example sound like a complaint. In reality, the effect ranges from mild inconvenience (雨に降られた) to loss (父に死なれた) or embarrassment (秘密を話された). The construction itself directs attention to the affected person. Vocabulary, context, and intonation show whether that effect is irritating, painful, or simply difficult.

Because the pattern can imply that another person’s action caused trouble, it may sound accusatory. 同僚に休まれた frames the coworker’s absence as a problem for the speaker, whereas 同僚が休んだ only reports that the coworker was absent. When tact matters, a neutral active sentence may be kinder.

Spoken and written use

Indirect passives are common in everyday storytelling, complaints, explanations, and accounts of bad luck. They also occur in writing when the writer wants to maintain an affected person’s viewpoint. Formal objective prose more often describes causes and events directly rather than presenting a personal sufferer.

Japanese frequently leaves the affected 私は unstated. English translations often have to restore “I,” “we,” or another experiencer because English cannot leave the viewpoint as implicit so easily.

Passive, potential, and honorific look-alikes

Forms ending in られる can have several functions. 食べられる can mean “is eaten” or “can eat,” and verbs with れる／られる can also be honorific in suitable contexts. Decide from the particles and meaning:

• 私は弟にケーキを食べられた。 — passive: my brother ate my cake on me.
• 私はケーキが食べられる。 — potential: I can eat cake.
• 先生はもう帰られました。 — often honorific: the teacher has already left.

An affected topic plus an actor marked by に strongly supports the passive reading.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Indirect passive versus the direct passive

The two constructions share a verb form but organize information differently.

Japanese	English	Analysis
弟がケーキを食べた。	My brother ate the cake.	Active; neutral event report
ケーキが弟に食べられた。	The cake was eaten by my brother.	Direct passive; cake is the subject
私は弟にケーキを食べられた。	My brother ate my cake on me.	Indirect passive; I am affected, cake remains the object

The last sentence does not merely rearrange the active sentence. It introduces an affected participant who need not be an argument of the active verb. An argument is a participant required or licensed by a verb, such as the eater and the thing eaten. The affected 私 is added by the indirect-passive construction.

Not every affected passive is structurally identical

Japanese descriptions often distinguish the indirect passive proper from the “possessor passive,” where an action targets the subject’s body part or possession. Compare 赤ちゃんに泣かれた, where the crying has no direct object, with 足を踏まれた, where the foot is directly stepped on and belongs to the affected person. For learners, both belong to the same practical family: the person affected is foregrounded, the actor takes に, and English usually chooses a different construction.

Event chains with て

The passive frequently appears in the て-form to give the reason for a later result:

子供に熱を出されて、仕事に行けませんでした。
“My child got a fever, so I couldn’t go to work.”

The first clause supplies the unwelcome circumstance; the second states its consequence. Similar endings include 困った (“was troubled”), 大変だった (“it was hard”), 予定が変わった (“the plans changed”), and 眠れなかった (“could not sleep”). This makes the impact clear without overtranslating the passive itself.

Viewpoint and empathy

Choosing this construction asks the listener to view the event from the affected person’s position. Compare 父が死んだ (“my father died”) with 父に死なれた (“my father died on me / leaving me affected”). The latter does not imply that the father acted wrongly. It emphasizes the survivor’s loss and changed circumstances, so it should be translated with care and not reduced to “I was annoyed.”

Practice Tips

1. Build pairs from one event. Write a neutral active sentence such as 赤ちゃんが泣いた, then add a plausible affected person: 私は赤ちゃんに泣かれて眠れなかった. This trains viewpoint rather than mere verb endings.
2. Keep the particle frame visible. Highlight affected person は, actor に, and any remaining object を in different colors. This is especially helpful for distinguishing 私は弟にケーキを食べられた from ケーキが弟に食べられた.
3. Translate for the situation. Rotate through natural English solutions: “got caught in,” “had my …,” “was troubled by,” “left me …,” and an active clause followed by a consequence. Then check that the Japanese still presents the same person as affected.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Passive Voice — learn the passive verb forms and the basic direct passive before working with affected-person viewpoint.