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られる(受身)

rareru-ukemi

The passive is not 'suffering'. It is moving the camera.

The picture Someone else's arrow comes down and lands on me. The camera stands at the receiving end, not the shooting end. られる stands where the arrow lands; させる stands where the arrow is fired and sets someone moving.

Endings and forms

Where the picture shows up in られる(受身)

  1. good things land too

    部長にほめられました。

    buchō ni homeraremashita

    My manager praised me.

    The manager's praise flies across and lands in my chest; I am the one standing still.

    The passive works even when what lands is pleasant. Memorise it as 'suffer' and this sentence stops making sense.

  2. something unwelcome lands

    電車で足を踏まれた。

    densha de ashi o fumareta

    Someone stepped on my foot on the train.

    On a packed train, the sole of someone's shoe comes down on the top of my foot.

  3. even the sky's arrow finds me

    雨に降られて、濡れました。

    ame ni furarete, nuremashita

    I got rained on and got soaked.

    Walking without an umbrella, the rain comes straight down onto my head.

    雨が降る is simply rain falling; 雨に降られる says the rain got me and it was a problem.

  4. the doer erased, the thing in focus

    この工場は50年前に建てられました。

    kono kōjō wa gojūnen mae ni tateraremashita

    This factory was built fifty years ago.

    Only the factory building is left in the frame; the people who built it have been erased out of it.

  5. the flat voice of an announcement

    会議は三時から行われます。

    kaigi wa sanji kara okonawaremasu

    The meeting will be held from three o'clock.

    The notice on the board carries the meeting time and nobody's name as the one holding it.

    Company notices and announcements are written almost entirely in this form.

All of it in one picture

The passive is not a form for misfortune; it is a form that puts the camera at the receiving end. Praise flying in and landing is welcome, a shoe sole coming down is not, but the arrow points the same way in both. The rain falls onto me; the factory stays in frame while its builders are erased; the notice holds a meeting with nobody named as host. So a passive sentence is not asking who did it — it shows what reached me, or reached the thing in view.

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