Passive Voice in Japanese

Overview

The passive voice in Japanese expresses that the subject receives or is affected by an action performed by someone or something else. While it shares some functions with the English passive ("was done by"), Japanese passive has a distinctive feature: the adversative passive, which expresses that the subject was negatively affected by an event, even one not directly done to them.

At the B1 level, the passive is essential for describing experiences, reporting events, and expressing inconvenience or suffering. It appears frequently in news, formal writing, and everyday conversation when the focus is on the receiver of an action rather than the doer.

Understanding the passive form also prepares you for the causative-passive combination, which expresses being forced to do something -- one of the most expressive constructions in Japanese.

How It Works

Formation

Verb Class	Rule	Dictionary Form	Passive Form
Godan (五段)	Change -u to -a + れる	書く	書かれる
Godan	Change -u to -a + れる	読む	読まれる
Godan	Change -u to -a + れる	話す	話される
Godan	Change -u to -a + れる	踏む	踏まれる
Ichidan (一段)	Drop -る, add -られる	食べる	食べられる
Ichidan	Drop -る, add -られる	褒める	褒められる
Irregular	Special	する	される
Irregular	Special	来る	来られる

Note: ichidan passive and potential forms are identical (食べられる). Context determines the meaning.

Passive verbs conjugate as ichidan verbs

Form	Example (読まれる)
Polite	読まれます
Negative	読まれない
Past	読まれた
て-form	読まれて

Types of passive

Direct passive -- the subject directly receives the action:

• Structure: [Subject] は [Agent] に [Verb passive]
• 私は先生に褒められた。 (I was praised by the teacher.)

Indirect (adversative) passive -- the subject is indirectly affected:

• Structure: [Subject] は [Agent] に [action] passive
• 雨に降られた。 (I got rained on. -- the rain affected me negatively)

Particle usage

Role	Particle	Example
Agent (person)	に	先生に褒められた
Agent (non-person/cause)	に / によって	台風によって壊された
Subject	は/が	私は褒められた

Examples in Context

Japanese	English	Note
私は先生に褒められました。	I was praised by the teacher.	Direct passive
電車で足を踏まれました。	My foot was stepped on in the train.	Direct passive, body part
この本は多くの人に読まれています。	This book is read by many people.	Ongoing state passive
雨に降られました。	I got rained on.	Adversative passive
財布を盗まれました。	My wallet was stolen.	Adversative passive
この建物は100年前に建てられました。	This building was built 100 years ago.	Descriptive passive
名前を呼ばれたので立ちました。	My name was called, so I stood up.	Direct passive
母に日記を読まれてしまいました。	My diary was read by my mother.	Adversative + てしまう
彼は皆に尊敬されています。	He is respected by everyone.	Ongoing state
パーティーに誘われました。	I was invited to a party.	Direct passive

Common Mistakes

Confusing passive and potential for ichidan verbs

• Wrong: この魚は食べられます。 (ambiguous without context)
• Right: Context is key. この魚は生で食べられます。 (can be eaten) vs. この魚は猫に食べられました。 (was eaten by the cat)
• Why: For ichidan verbs, passive and potential share the same form. Use context, particles (に for agent), and ら抜き (食べれる for potential in casual speech) to disambiguate.

Using を for the agent instead of に

• Wrong: 先生を褒められた。
• Right: 先生に褒められた。
• Why: The agent performing the action in a passive sentence is marked by に (or によって), not を.

Not recognizing adversative passive

• Wrong: Translating 雨に降られた as simply "It rained"
• Right: "I got rained on" / "I was affected by the rain"
• Why: The adversative passive expresses that the subject was negatively impacted. The nuance of inconvenience or suffering is essential to the meaning.

Overusing passive in Japanese

• Wrong: Using passive as frequently as in English academic writing
• Right: Use active voice when the agent is known and relevant
• Why: Japanese uses passive less frequently than English in many contexts. Active voice with は/が topic/subject marking often achieves the same effect.

Usage Notes

The adversative passive is a uniquely Japanese feature that has no direct equivalent in English. It is used when someone is inconvenienced by an action -- even natural events like rain (雨に降られた) or a child crying (子供に泣かれた). This "suffering passive" is extremely common in conversation.

In formal and written Japanese, the passive is used similarly to English for objective descriptions: この法律は1950年に制定された (This law was enacted in 1950). News reports and academic texts use passive frequently.

The agent marker によって is more formal and commonly used in written language, while に is standard in conversation.

Practice Tips

• Rewrite active sentences into passive: take daily events and describe them from the receiver's perspective. 犬が私を噛んだ → 私は犬に噛まれた.
• Practice the adversative passive by describing inconvenient situations: being rained on, having someone eat your food, being woken up by noise.
• Read Japanese news headlines, which frequently use passive constructions for reporting events.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Potential Form -- shares conjugation patterns with ichidan passive
• Next steps: Indirect Passive -- deeper exploration of the adversative passive pattern