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JLPT N4Verb Forms

られる(Passive) — The Victim Form

The passive form marks the subject as the RECEIVER of an action. In Japanese it is heavily used to complain about something annoying done to you (the adversative / 'suffering' passive).

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Structure · 形

u-verb: -u → -a + れる (書く→書かれる) | ru-verb: drop る + られる (食べる→食べられる)

Examples · 例文

  • 私は先生に褒められました。

    Watashi wa sensei ni homeraremashita.

    I was praised by the teacher.

    褒める (praise) → 褒められる (be praised)

  • 電車の中で足を踏まれた。

    Densha no naka de ashi wo fumareta.

    My foot was stepped on inside the train.

    踏む (step) → 踏まれる (be stepped on)

  • 雨に降られて、服が濡れた。

    Ame ni furarete, fuku ga nureta.

    I got rained on, and my clothes got wet.

    降る (fall) → 降られる (adversative 'suffering' passive)

Usage notes · 注意

  • The Agent Particle: The person/thing performing the action on you is marked by に (先生に = by the teacher).
  • Suffering Passive (Adversative): Japanese can make even intransitive verbs passive! 雨に降られた literally = 'I was fallen-on by the rain', showing you were bothered by it.
  • Passive vs Potential: ru-verb passive and potential are identical (食べられる); rely on context and the に particle to tell them apart.

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones られる is tested against.

vsられる (potential)

Same shape for ru-verbs; the passive has an agent marked with に and often an adversative 'suffering' nuance, whereas potential means 'can do'.

vsてもらう

てもらう frames receiving a favor positively ('had someone do it for me'); the passive often frames an action as done TO you, sometimes unwelcome.

vs使役受身 させられる (causative-passive)

させられる means 'was MADE to do' (unwilling); the plain passive is simply 'was done to'.

More verb forms

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