Level 8 / Lesson 5: Passive Verbs (part 1)
안녕하세요! Hi everyone! This lesson is going to be a little confusing, but I think it covers an important topic – passive verbs! It’s not as straightforward as I’d like it to be, but I’ll try my best to explain it clearly! Let’s start!
You’ve probably heard your teachers tell you to not use passive voice in your writing because it can often come off as vague and sounds wordier than its active counterpart. But what even is passive voice in English and how does it compare to active voice? Let’s see some examples:
I kick the ball = Active voice
The ball is kicked (by me) = Passive voice
In the active voice sentence, the subject, I, is acting on the object, which is the ball. In the passive voice sentence, however, the ball is basically just being described; nothing is acting on the ball – it’s just kicked. It kind of sounds like “kicked” is an adjective even when it technically is not.
Something important to note in these sentences are the kinds of nouns in them – which of them are subjects and which are objects?
In the active voice sentence, “I” is the subject and “the ball” is the object. Again, I am acting on the ball by kicking it – I am doing something to it.
In the passive voice, however, “the ball” is the subject. But there isn’t an objective noun here, not even if you attach “by me” to the end of it. “Me” cannot be the object because “me” is not the thing being acted on.
So why is “the ball” not the object in the passive voice? It’s complicated, I know.
As I said before, passive verbs kind of function like adjectives. In this case, you’re describing what is happening to the ball – it’s being kicked. The verb “to be kicked” is not an active verb, meaning such an action cannot be put upon a noun, if that makes any sense. You can kick a ball, but you can’t be kicked a ball (that doesn’t make sense), if you get what I mean.
I’m sorry for the rant about confusing English grammar, but I think once we have dissected the English language, we can better understand Korean. Like English speakers, Korean speakers don’t typically use the passive voice, but it’s still good to know. So let’s finally get to Korean!
Let’s start with this: 되다 is the passive version of 하다. 하다 means “to do,” while 되다 means “to be done” (this isn’t the only meaning of 되다, but it’s the one we’ll focus on for now).
(this is similar to an example from howtostudykorean.com)
저는 숙제를 했어요. = I did the homework. = Active
숙제는 되었어요. (can also be 숙제는 됐어요.) = The homework was done. = Passive
Notice how in the active sentence, 저 is the subject and has 는 attached to it – it is the subject/topic of the sentence and is the one doing the action onto the object, which is 숙제. In the passive sentence, however, 숙제 is the subject of the sentence – it’s the thing that is being described.
If you want to clarify that the homework was done by me, you can add -에게 to the person who did the action:
숙제는 저에게 되었어요. = The homework was done by me. (Like in English, this sentence doesn’t quite sound that natural in Korean. When in doubt, stick with the active voice!)
Let’s see some more examples of active verbs and their passive counterparts!
준비하다 = to prepare (엄마는 저녁을 준비했어요. = My mom prepared dinner.)
준비되다 = to be prepared / to be ready (저녁은 준비됐어요. = Dinner was prepared. / Dinner is ready.)
포함하다 = to include (from howtostudykorean.com: 이 값은 세금을 포함해요. = This price includes tax.)
포함되다 = to be included (from howtostudykorean.com: 세금은 값에 포함돼요. = Tax is included in the price.)
*Notice how I attached -에 to 값. You can attach -에 to a non-person noun in these kinds of sentences.
이해하다 = to understand (저는 이걸 이해 안 해요. = I don’t understand this.)
이해되다 = to be understood (이건 이해 안 돼요. = This is not understood.)(this is more naturally translated as “I don’t understand this” – the same as the active voice)
반복하다 = to repeat (말을 못 들어서 반복해 주세요. = I couldn’t hear what you said so please repeat it.)
반복되다 = to be repeated (이말 반복되면 안 돼요. = This cannot be repeated.)
걱정하다 = to worry (걱정하지마. = Don’t worry. (informal))
걱정되다 = to be worried (내일은 시험을 볼 거니까 걱정돼요. = I’m worried because I’m going to take a test tomorrow.)
For the sake of keeping this lesson not too long and overwhelming, I’m going to end it here! There are many more passive verbs that don’t end in 되다, and I plan on making another lesson or maybe a vocab list all about those other verbs. But I think that this is enough for now! Feel free to ask any questions you may have!
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