How to Use Passive Verbs in Japanese

04/08/20232 min read

Translated from the Vietnamese original. View the original.

How to use passive verbs in Japanese:

+ Japanese has two ways of using the passive. The first is with transitive verbs, as in English. In such sentences the doer of the action may or may not be expressed.

Example: My wallet was stolen (doer omitted) – My wallet was stolen by a pickpocket.

+ To form the passive, add -areru, -aremasu to the stem of consonant-stem verbs, and -rareru, -raremasu to the stem of vowel-stem verbs. For the negative, add -arenai, -aremasen to consonant-stem verbs and -rarenai, -raremasen to vowel-stem verbs.

Examples:
盗む nusumu – steal,
盗まれる・盗まれます nusumareru/nusumaremasu – be stolen.

追いかける oikakeru – chase,
追いかけられる・追いかけられます oikakerareru/oikakeraremasu – be chased

Examples:
車がぬすまれました。
kuruma ga nusumaremashita
My car was stolen.

その本は去年に書かれました。
sono hon wa kyonen ni kakaremashita
This book was written last year.

猫は犬に追いかけられました。
neko wa inu ni oikakeraremashita
The cat was chased by a dog.

Note: This type of passive is more limited in Japanese than in English. Although passive forms can grammatically be used with many verbs, the resulting sentences can sound awkward.

The second use of the passive in Japanese, which has no equivalent in English, can be called the “adversative” passive. It means something happened to someone and had a negative effect on them. The verb can be intransitive or transitive. Because this is so unlike English, read the following sentences carefully, especially the translations.

Note the use of the particle に “ni” in the passive sentences below.

Examples:
Active: マリさんのお母さんが死にました。
Mari san no okaasan ga shinimashita
Mary's mother died.

Passive: マリさんはお母さんに死なれました。
Mari san wa okaasan ni shinaremashita
Mary suffered the death of her mother.

Active: 雨が降りました。
ame ga furimashita
It rained.

Passive: 田中さんは雨に降られました。
Tanaka san wa ame ni furaremashita
Mr Tanaka got caught in the rain.

A quick review of how to use passive verbs in Japanese: