Passive form

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Passive form

This article explains passive form in Japanese. Passive form is also called "passive voice" in English.

Passive form means that something is being acted upon. An example in English would be "to give a gift" (active) versus "to be given a gift" (passive).

Examples:

トラコはねずみを食べました。
Torako wa nezumi o tabemashita.
Torako ate the mouse.

ねずみはトラコに食べられました。
Nezumi wa Torako ni taberaremashita.
The mouse was eaten by Torako.

ねずみはトラコに食べられませんでした。
Nezumi wa Torako ni taberaremasen deshita.
The mouse was not eaten by Torako.

トラコはねずみをおいかけました。
Torako wa nezumi o oikakemashita.
Torako chased the mouse.

ねずみはトラコにおいかけられました。
Nezumi wa torako ni oikakeraremashita.
The mouse is chased by Torako.

Verb Conjugation Patterns

Use the following patterns to create passive form of verbs.

Verb Group 1 (godan verbs, also known as u-dropping verbs)

Positive Plain
[verb-stem]areru
Negative plain:
[verb-stem]arenai
Positive polite:
[verb-stem]aremasu
Negative polite:
[verb-stem]aremasen

Verb Group 2 (ichidan verbs, also known as ru-dropping verbs)

Positive Plain
[verb-stem]rareru
Negative plain:
[verb-stem]rarenai
Positive polite:
[verb-stem]raremasu
Negative polite:
[verb-stem]raremasen

Verb Group 3

Positive Plain
Suru: sareru
Kuru: korareru
Negative plain:
Suru: sarenai
Kuru: korarenai
Positive polite:
Suru: saremasu
Kuru: koraremasu
Negative polite:
Suru: saremasen
Kuru: koreraremasen

This page is based a part of "Some Notes on Japanese Grammar" published for your personal use, with the kind permission of Keith Smillie (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/)

Comments (8)

Thanks for catching this one, too.

The hiragana does not include られ for the fifth example.

Thanks for pointing out these two typos, which were presumably copy-and-paste errors.

Positive polite is referred to as negative polite in the ichidan and godan verb sections.

tonysan this is the 'bei' in mandarin rite?

I didn't explain it all that well. It was more like we should only write it when it adds effect, is necessary, etc. Not that it was bad, just not to use it a lot. It's not a journalism-related class, that's probably why.

Thank-you!

My understanding is that it is quite acceptable in nihongo.

Also, your teacher perhaps failed to mention that the passive voice in English is indispensable for writing news reports, since it enables one to say that something was done without directly alleging who did it. I am sure that in journalism classes, students are not told that the passive voice is "bad English."

My teacher gave a lecture on not writing in passive voice jsut a while ago..is it considered as bad in japan as it is here?

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