Japanese Passive - the simple secret - it ISN'T passive!

Japanese Passive giving you trouble? The particles all changed places? The secret is that it ISN'T passive. Understand that and everything falls into place.▼See More ▼

There are two things to know about the Japanese passive conjugation. It isn't passive and it isn't a conjugation! It is a simple helper-verb that works just the same way all other Japanese verbs work - once you know what it's really doing.

For more detail on how this grammar works, see the grammatical notes on this page

▼The course-book for this course is Unlocking Japanese

▼Please visit us at KawaJapa

[sleepyraisins]

Whenever I’m feeling discouraged, I always go back to watch your videos and the impossible seems possible. Thank you cure dolly, may you rest in peace

[craigbryant]

An excellent discussion of the Japanese "passive, " which I am going to call "receptive" from this moment forward (the Japanese even has the "re" sound, as if to remind English speakers of the word "receive!") I recommend the book "Unlocking Japanese" to anyone watching this video. It is an absolute jewel.

[vgamedude]

These videos are a massive help. I've heard that the author has passed away which is quite sad. Wherever you are thanks for the help.

[kevinscales]

Ok I was confused by this video but the comments were you mention 'got' cleared it all up for me.
"I got thrown (the) ball by Mary" (IはMaryにballをthrown got)
"(the) water got drunk by (the) dog" (waterがdogにdrunk got)

[raitoningusigma]

Hi CureDolly, I usually never write comments on youtube but I really want to thank you for this video. It made the "passive" sooo much easier to understand. Gonna support you now :)

[NERGYStudios]

Almost one year of learning and this is the first time I hear this. Thank you so much CureDolly Sensei!

[andrettax]

This is pure gold, after like 3 minutes meditating on it I can easily, very easily, see how the water would receive the action of the source (dog) being drank, the water is the subject, receiving the action of being drank. Very easy peasy.

[japaneseimmersion]

Such a great teacher. She is missed. I’m grateful her videos are still here to learn from.

[ijansk]

I see now.
Understanding the Japanese "passive voice" was always a struggle for me, especially because of the use of に to indicate the author of the action; it simply didn't seem to make rational sense in the way the Japanese "passive voice" is taught to Indoeuropeans minds.

I came to rationalise the expression by thinking of に as being used for its locative meaning (in/at) in a metaphorical/abstract sense, So for example, 水が友達に飲まれた, in my mind I rationalised the sentence as saying "the water was drunk in/at my friend". Identifying the agent metaphorically as the location where the action takes place made more sense to me then, but now I see my rationalisation of the Japanese "passive voice" wasn't correct either.

Thanks for letting us understand how Japanese really works and sees the world around.

[rapidriver]

I originally found your videos because I was getting frustrated with particle usage, so I was randomly watching youtube videos to try and understand them better. Going through these has helped things become a lot clearer when building my own sentences! Thank you.

[BloodPreist]

Dolly, thank you so much for these explanations. I can't believe how mishandled the education is for this language- when it's laid out in this organic and logical format, the function of each piece couldn't be simpler. Your lessons are an enormous help to my understanding.

[VoltzNSmith]

Thank you so much. I've been struggling with this for over a year. I think this will help

[smudge]

This is so beyond helpful. Thank you so much, Cure Dolly. RIP 🙏

[ローラ-qy]

JAPANESE- THE RECEPTIVE HELPER VERB
00:01- introduction

●Why is it receptive?
00:20- why not naming it "passive form" matters
|| 01:11- particles confusion
|| 01:52- English example
|| 02:23- Japanese example

●☆03:34- Particles usage

04:01- finalization of why using it as receptive matters

●☆04:19- helper verb || れる/られる
05:04- comparison to English

06:52- finalization
07:18- finishing

[saaah]

Incredible. Finally it makes sense. "受身"... Wow.

[RsREMAKEVids]

Another helpful video! I'm really glad I subscribed to this channel.

[billhenson]

Outstanding instruction Sensei! If I understand you correctly, in your example regarding the water and dog at 5:38, you are saying the original Japanese sentence literally means “the water received drinking action from the dog." Or, if this same thought is expressed from the dog’s point of view, “the dog gave drinking action to the water.” It occurs to me this is roughly equivalent to saying in English, “the child received a spanking from the parent.” Or, conversely, “the parent gave a spanking to the child.” For me, this underscores the importance of learning what Japanese compound verbs actually mean! Thanks again for clearing this up -- the Japanese particles now make sense and operate as expected.

[PocariRamune]

Wow! That was entlightning!!
Thank you so much!

[bitcube]

The water drinkreceived from the dog. That's absolutely amazing. Makes perfect sense. I really hope I don't forget proper English by Japanizing my brain, but I can foresee I might start mixing them up in the future. I mean, saying drinkreceived is so convenient and straightforward, who wouldn't...

[sebastiendumais]

I have watched many of the lessons you posted and I find it to be a very powerful way to look at Japanese structure. It unlocked many sticking points that slowed my progress and I'm very thankful for that... I wish it was a more widespread method of teaching....

However, in this particular case of the passive in Japanese, I would respectfully disagree.... I think that Japanese not only has a passive voice, but that the passive voice is so much more used in Japanese than in modern Western languages that it needs multiple representations.

First off, I would saw that the passive voice is not a "conjugaison" applicable only to verbs, I see it as a construct / litterary device used to throw the spotlight or change the perspective on another actor in a sentence. It doesn't mean that a grammatical subject is a "victim" (it could be, but that's not necessary) or that the sentence doesn't have an "active" semantic meaning (the dog is "actively" drinking the water in Japanese or in English).

I think it is more useful and requires less contrived explainations to see many Japanese sentenses as passive with different nuances of "passiveness". In many cases, when trying to translate from English to Japanese, I find that using an English passive sentence and translating that gives a natural Japanese sentence. BTW, I think that a lot of the issues we see in regular textbooks is explicitely starting from the point of view of English instead of Japanese.... but that's a different story.


The way I see it, when I read a sentence in ーたい　（食べたい, for ex), I understand it not as "want to eat" (active voice) but rather as "eating is desired/desirable" (passive voice). Same goes for many other constructions with auxilary verbs/adjectives/nouns that express a nuance in the passiveness:

* たい
* られる・れる・せられる・されられる
* る・られる・できる
* I'm sure there are many more

If I take a ”toy" example like 犬がすきです, if it's seen as a passive voice sentence, the use of が makes sense (the dog is liked), "the dog" is the grammatical subject of the sentence and is marked by "が“ as it should be. A tiny bit more complex sentence "ケーキがたべたい”, if I think "Eating the cake is desired/desirable", there is no need to think that the cake wants me to eat it. It even allows splitting the auxilary verb ”たい" from the main verb and make "cake" be the grammatical subject of that auxilary (as it should be).

To use your example "水が犬に飲まられた”, I don't think it's an error to say "the water was drunk by the dog"... Saying this way is a bit contrived in English, but I think Japanese are much more comfortable with this kind of formulation than English. "The water was drunk by the dog" (passive voice) and "The dog drank the water" (active voice) have exactly the same meaning in English (and I suspect in Japanese too, with Japanese being able to express a feeling with that passive voice that English cannot do directly). It also allows all particules to keep doing their intended role (が marks the grammatical subject and に properly marks the target... no trick required).