Passive Voice in Thai

In Brief

Thai commonly puts ถูก (thùuk) or informal โดน (doon) before an action that happens to the subject, especially when the event is unpleasant: เขาถูกตี means “He was hit.” For positive or neutral reception, Thai often uses ได้รับ (dâi ráp, “receive”), as in เขาได้รับเลือก (“He was selected”). Thai uses the passive less freely than English, so an active sentence or a sentence with no stated actor is often more natural.

Overview

The passive voice presents the person or thing affected by an action as the subject—the main participant the sentence is about. Compare English “The police arrested him” with “He was arrested by the police.” The event is the same, but the passive puts attention on the affected person rather than the actor.

At B1, the central Thai patterns are manageable because Thai verbs do not conjugate: there is no equivalent of changing arrest to was arrested. Instead, Thai adds a word before the action. ถูก and โดน often suggest that the subject suffers, is inconvenienced, or is exposed to something beyond their control. ได้รับ presents the subject as receiving something and therefore works especially well with benefits, recognition, rights, information, or formal neutral outcomes.

The important challenge for an English-speaking learner is not forming the pattern but choosing it naturally. English readily uses passives to avoid naming the actor: “The meeting was cancelled.” Thai can do this too, but it may instead omit an understood subject, use an active clause with มีคน (“someone/people”), or simply state the event. A grammatically possible word-for-word passive is not always the sentence a Thai speaker would choose.

How It Works

The three core patterns

Marker	Basic structure	Typical effect	Register
ถูก (thùuk)	affected subject + ถูก + (actor) + verb	often adverse, unwanted, or beyond the subject’s control; sometimes neutral	neutral; common in speech and writing
โดน (doon)	affected subject + โดน + (actor) + verb	strongly conversational; often “get/got” something unpleasant	informal and spoken
ได้รับ (dâi ráp)	recipient + ได้รับ + verb, noun, or การ + verb	positive, official, or neutral reception	neutral to formal

The affected subject is the person or thing that undergoes the action. The actor (also called the agent) is whoever performs it.

ถูก: the general affected-subject pattern

The simplest structure is:

affected subject + ถูก + verb

• เขาถูกตี — He was hit.
• บ้านถูกขายแล้ว — The house has been sold.
• โทรศัพท์ถูกขโมย — The phone was stolen.

No separate word meaning “was” is needed. Time comes from context or from ordinary Thai time and aspect expressions. For example, เมื่อวาน places an event yesterday, กำลัง presents it as in progress, and แล้ว presents it as completed or now relevant:

• เขาถูกจับเมื่อวาน — He was arrested yesterday.
• ถนนกำลังถูกซ่อม — The road is being repaired.
• บ้านถูกขายแล้ว — The house has already been sold.

Although ถูก frequently carries a negative flavor, it is not restricted to disasters. With inanimate subjects and conventional institutional actions, it may be fairly neutral: อาคารถูกสร้างในปี 2010 (“The building was built in 2010”). Even then, formal or polished Thai may prefer a different construction, especially when no sense of harm is intended.

Naming the actor with ถูก or โดน

When the actor is stated in the basic Thai pattern, it normally stands between the passive marker and the action:

affected subject + ถูก/โดน + actor + verb

• เขาถูกตำรวจจับ — He was arrested by the police.
• ผมโดนเพื่อนแกล้ง — I got teased by a friend.

This order is crucial. English puts “by the police” after the verb, but Thai commonly places ตำรวจ directly before จับ. There is no need for a Thai equivalent of English by in this pattern.

The actor can be omitted when unknown, obvious, or unimportant:

• รถถูกขโมยเมื่อคืน — The car was stolen last night.
• ฉันโดนดุอีกแล้ว — I got scolded again.

โดน: conversational and personally felt

โดน follows the same basic order as ถูก, but it sounds more conversational. It is especially natural for mishaps, criticism, punishment, tricks, rain, traffic fines, and other experiences that feel personal:

• โดนฝน — get caught in the rain / get rained on
• โดนปรับ — get fined
• โดนหลอก — get deceived
• โดนดุ — get scolded

In English, “get” often comes closer to its tone than a formal be-passive does. ผมโดนหัวหน้าดุ is naturally “I got scolded by my boss.” In formal reports, careful writing, or official announcements, prefer ถูก or another appropriate formal construction.

ได้รับ: receiving a result, benefit, or official action

ได้รับ literally has the idea “get/receive.” It commonly introduces something granted, communicated, awarded, or officially done to the subject.

Three useful shapes are:

1. subject + ได้รับ + verb
   เขาได้รับเลือกเป็นประธาน — He was elected chair.

2. subject + ได้รับ + noun
   ผู้ป่วยได้รับยาแล้ว — The patient has received the medicine.

3. subject + ได้รับ + การ + verb
   โครงการได้รับการอนุมัติ — The project was approved.

In the third pattern, การ turns an action into an action-noun—a noun referring to the act or process. For instance, อนุมัติ is “approve,” while การอนุมัติ is “approval.” This pattern is frequent in news, administration, and formal writing: ได้รับการสนับสนุน (“receive support / be supported”), ได้รับการยอมรับ (“be accepted/recognized”), and ได้รับการรักษา (“receive treatment / be treated”).

Do not add การ mechanically before every verb. Some established combinations use a bare verb, including ได้รับเลือก (“be selected/elected”). Others naturally take an ordinary noun: ได้รับรางวัล (“receive an award”). Learn frequent combinations as complete chunks.

Negation

Put ไม่ before the passive marker when the passive event does not happen:

• เขาไม่ถูกลงโทษ — He was not punished.
• ข้อเสนอไม่ได้รับการอนุมัติ — The proposal was not approved.

With ได้รับ, the written form ไม่ได้รับ is extremely common. Here it means “did not receive / was not given,” not “was unable to receive.” Context identifies the intended meaning.

When Thai does not use a passive marker

Thai often keeps the actor as subject if the actor matters:

• บริษัทเลื่อนการประชุม — The company postponed the meeting.

If the actor is unknown, a generic active subject can be natural:

• มีคนขโมยจักรยานของฉัน — Someone stole my bicycle.

Thai also omits subjects when context makes them clear:

• ส่งเอกสารแล้ว — The documents have been sent. / [Someone] has sent the documents.

The last sentence is not structurally passive. Its natural English translation may nevertheless be passive because English requires a subject where Thai can leave one unstated.

Examples in Context

Thai	English	Note
เขาถูกตี	He was hit.	Basic ถูก passive; adverse event
บ้านถูกขายแล้ว	The house has been sold.	แล้ว marks completion/current result
โทรศัพท์ของฉันถูกขโมยเมื่อคืน	My phone was stolen last night.	Actor unknown or irrelevant
เขาถูกตำรวจจับที่สนามบิน	He was arrested by the police at the airport.	Actor stands between ถูก and จับ
ถนนสายนี้กำลังถูกซ่อม	This road is being repaired.	กำลัง marks an ongoing process
ฉันโดนหัวหน้าดุอีกแล้ว	I got scolded by my boss again.	Conversational and personally adverse
เมื่อเช้าเขาโดนฝนระหว่างทาง	He got caught in the rain on the way this morning.	Common colloquial use of โดน
ถ้าจอดตรงนี้อาจโดนปรับ	If you park here, you might get fined.	Informal warning
เธอได้รับเลือกเป็นตัวแทนของทีม	She was selected as the team’s representative.	Positive/neutral bare-verb combination
นักเรียนได้รับรางวัลจากโรงเรียน	The student received an award from the school.	ได้รับ + noun
โครงการนี้ได้รับการอนุมัติแล้ว	This project has been approved.	Formal ได้รับการ pattern
ผู้ป่วยได้รับการรักษาทันที	The patient was treated immediately.	Institutional, neutral action
ข้อเสนอของเราไม่ได้รับการยอมรับ	Our proposal was not accepted.	Negative ไม่ได้รับ
บริษัทเลื่อนการประชุมไปวันศุกร์	The meeting was postponed until Friday by the company.	Thai naturally keeps the actor as subject
ส่งอีเมลแล้ว	The email has been sent.	Natural subject omission, not a marked passive

Common Mistakes

Using ถูก for every English passive

• Awkward: เขาถูกให้รางวัล for “He was given an award.”
• Natural: เขาได้รับรางวัล
• Why: An award is something received, so ได้รับ fits its positive meaning. ถูก can make the event sound imposed or unfortunate.

Copying English “by” order

• Wrong: เขาถูกจับตำรวจ
• Right: เขาถูกตำรวจจับ
• Why: In the core Thai construction, the actor comes after ถูก and before the action: affected person + ถูก + actor + verb.

Treating โดน as formal vocabulary

• Inappropriate in a formal report: โครงการโดนยกเลิก
• Better: โครงการถูกยกเลิก or, depending on context, บริษัทได้ยกเลิกโครงการ
• Why: โดน is strongly conversational. Official writing generally chooses ถูก, an active sentence, or a more formal construction.

Adding ได้รับการ before any verb

• Awkward: เขาได้รับการเลือกเป็นประธาน
• Natural: เขาได้รับเลือกเป็นประธาน
• Why: Thai collocations differ. ได้รับเลือก is an established bare-verb combination, while expressions such as ได้รับการอนุมัติ conventionally contain การ.

Looking for a Thai equivalent of “was”

• Wrong: เขาเป็นถูกจับ
• Right: เขาถูกจับ
• Why: Thai does not build the passive with “be” plus a participle. ถูก itself marks the affected-subject construction; time is supplied by context or time/aspect words.

Forcing a passive where Thai would omit the subject

• Heavy in everyday context: อีเมลถูกส่งแล้ว
• Often more natural: ส่งอีเมลแล้ว
• Why: English needs a grammatical subject, but Thai often omits an understood actor or topic. The marked passive is useful only when the affected item deserves focus.

Usage Notes

ถูก and negativity. The shortcut “ถูก is negative” is helpful but not absolute. It strongly favors harmful or unwanted events with people: arrest, deception, criticism, theft, and injury. With things, conventional processes such as being built, sold, translated, or repaired can sound neutral. Context and genre matter.

โดน and speaker attitude. โดน often makes the experience vivid and personal. Friends may use it jokingly even for something not truly harmful, particularly when describing what unexpectedly happened to them. That expressive quality is one reason it is less suitable for detached formal prose.

ได้รับ and formality. ได้รับ is not only a passive marker; it is also an ordinary verb meaning “receive.” เขาได้รับจดหมาย straightforwardly means “He received a letter.” English may translate some ได้รับ clauses actively and others passively. Focus on the Thai idea of receiving a result rather than trying to label every occurrence.

Pronouns and omitted participants. Thai frequently omits both subjects and actors when they are understood. โดนดุมาเหรอ can mean “Did you get scolded?” even without an explicit word for “you.” Add a pronoun only when clarity, contrast, or politeness requires it.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Formal Thai has additional ways to background the actor. The pattern เป็นที่ + verb describes a state of being widely regarded or known: เพลงนี้เป็นที่รู้จักทั่วประเทศ means “This song is known throughout the country.” The impersonal expression เป็นที่เชื่อกันว่า... means “It is generally believed that...” Here กัน suggests shared or collective participation rather than identifying one actor.

Written Thai may also use โดย (“by”) to introduce an actor, particularly in administrative, academic, legal, or translated prose:

• รายงานนี้จัดทำโดยคณะกรรมการ — This report was prepared by the committee.
• กฎหมายฉบับนี้ได้รับการอนุมัติโดยรัฐสภา — This law was approved by parliament.

This is not the everyday core pattern taught above. In เขาถูกตำรวจจับ, adding โดย is unnecessary because ตำรวจ already occupies the actor position. Overusing โดย can make ordinary conversation sound like a document translated from English.

Another advanced point is that English passive translations do not prove that Thai grammar is passive. ควรปิดประตู can be translated “The door should be closed,” but its Thai structure simply says that closing the door is advisable. Likewise, a headline may omit the actor for brevity without using ถูก, โดน, or ได้รับ. At higher levels, judge the information structure—what the writer foregrounds—rather than matching English auxiliary verbs word for word.

Finally, the choice of construction can reveal stance. คนงานถูกเลิกจ้าง foregrounds workers as affected by dismissal and can invite sympathy. บริษัทเลิกจ้างคนงาน foregrounds the company’s action. Both report a similar event, but they guide attention differently. This is the real communicative purpose of passive-like constructions.

Practice Tips

1. Sort events by viewpoint. Make three lists: unpleasant experiences for ถูก/โดน, benefits or official outcomes for ได้รับ, and events that sound better as active Thai. Say one sentence from each list aloud.
2. Transform in both directions. Start with ตำรวจจับเขา (“The police arrested him”) and change it to เขาถูกตำรวจจับ. Then reverse the process. This trains Thai word order instead of English “by” order.
3. Collect whole combinations. From news and conversations, save chunks such as โดนดุ, ถูกขโมย, ได้รับเลือก, and ได้รับการอนุมัติ. Recording the noun or verb together with its marker is more reliable than guessing whether การ is needed.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Verb Structure — review Thai subject–verb–object order and the fact that verbs do not conjugate.
• Next step: Advanced Passive Constructions — develop actor placement and finer register and meaning contrasts.
• Later reference: Formal Passive and Impersonal — study formal written patterns such as เป็นที่...กัน, ถือว่า, and institutional ได้รับการ constructions.