Non-Passive To Passive
“Smile: if you can’t lift the corners, let the middle sag.” – Unknown
The real test will be to see if you can change something in non-passive form to passive form (or vice versa). There’s some important things to look out for… some patterns that passive form will follow.
First of all, you’ll notice that the person or thing doing the action gets followed by the particle に. As in…
aボビーさん に よまれた。
Read by Bobby.
This is strange compared to what we’ve learned before. But think of it this way: with passive form, the actions are just going somewhere (passively). There’s no control, things are just happening, like the flow of movement or time (which is where に usually gets used). Things just happen. They go from one state to another state by way of someone or something. So, that’s why it uses に.
So, you have to think “who’s performing the action” (even though nobody’s really directly performing any action, things just happen). Once you figure that out, you can add に to it and then put the passive verb right after. So, if you know that, you can convert a non-passive sentence to a passive one. I want you to try – I’ll give you the answers for all of them, but they’ll be hidden, so you should try to do it on your own first. If you get one wrong, find out what you messed up and then try again.
a池田さん が たべた。
Ikeda ate it.
a池田さん に たべられた。
It was eaten by Ikeda.
aポールさん が のんだ。
Paul drank it.
aポールさん に のまれた。
It was drunk by Paul.
aアップル は iPhone を 作った。
Apple made the iPhone
aiPhone は アップル に 作られた。
The iPhone was made by Apple
aこういちさん は おんがく を きいた。
Koichi listened to the music.
aおんがく は こういちさん に きかれた。
The music was listened to by Koichi
aマイケルさん は 「アイ・ラブ・ユー」という うた を うたいました。
Michael sang the song known as “I love you.”
a「アイ・ラブ・ユー」という うた は マイケルさん に うたわれました。
The song known as “I love you” was sung by Michael.
aお父さん は 中田くん を 見つけた。
Father found Nakada.
a中田くん は お父さん に 見つけられた。
Nakada was found by Father.
aあの ロボット は この パソコン を なおした。
That robot over there fixed this computer
aこの パソコン は あの ロボット に なおされた。
This computer was fixed by that robot.
There, how was that? I imagine it was a little difficult, but I hope you started to get the feel for it as you moved further along. It’s going to take some getting used to, but learning about passive form will do a couple of different things. First, it’ll allow you to use passive form (duh) which we’ll learn a little more about on the next page, and second, it’ll help you to learn the grammar point you’ll be learning in the next chapter, which is great as well. Let’s take a look at when to use Passive form, now that you have a better idea of how to use it.