So I know how to conjugate the verbs, the issue I’m struggling with is how do I use it? As in, what scenarios would it be best to use.
From CH. 21 of Genki, it’s mainly described as a way to express inconveniences to yourself, or to someone, by someone. I understand it to some extent,
But in general, I just don’t understand how it’s different, or what effect it gives. Everywhere I’ve searched it’s described as “something being done” or “something being done to something” and it just doesn’t click to me.
Like, this example from a website:
私のケーキが犬に食べられた : my cake was eaten by the dog.
I don’t see how it’s different from
犬が私のケーキを食べる : A dog ate my cake.
I understand we’re focusing the verb affecting the subject in the first example,
And in the second, the subject is performing the verb.
Is that the only difference?? Or am I missing something here?
And if it is the only difference, then when would it be best to use them?!
Because other than the focus of the subject, what difference would there be??
Are both perfectly acceptable??
I’m sorry for not understanding this so well, I just really need someone to dumb it down for me. Like, really dumb it down. Any help is appreciated
3 comments
That is *one* of the differences, and it is more or less the primary difference from a pure grammatical standpoint.
From a more pragmatic standpoint, passive form is also used to imply irritation or some kind of negativity towards the thing being done. For example, 犬がケーキを食べた means the dog ate the cake, while ケーキが犬に食べられた means ‘the cake got eaten by the dog (and that’s annoying)’
Also, passive form can be used in situations where the verb doesn’t even affect the subject, including intransitive verbs. 警察が犯人に逃げられた means ‘the police were ran away from by the criminal’, which is a weird way to put it in English, but the pragmatic meaning is ‘the criminal escaped (and that’s not good)’.
Passive form can also indicate a level of politeness as it puts distance between the subject and the object.
> I’m struggling with is how do I use it?
You use it mostly when it doesn’t matter who did it, or to make it sound more formal and polite.
With your first example, you use a passive form and omit “dog” when the emphasis is that the cake is gone and who ate it doesn’t matter much or hasn’t entered the conversation yet.
For the latter, it’s more polite to say that you found the door was left open than telling your colleague that you saw them leave it open when they left.