The 被 (bèi) Passive Construction
- Form passive sentences with 被 (bèi) to show something is acted upon
- Identify the receiver, agent, and verb in a 被 sentence
- Explain when a 被 passive sounds natural versus forced
Turning the focus onto the receiver
Sometimes you want the receiver of an action, not the doer, to be the topic — “the phone was fixed,” not “someone fixed the phone.” Mandarin does this with 被 (bèi), the passive marker. The pattern is receiver + 被 + (agent) + verb + extra: 手机被弟弟修好了 (Shǒujī bèi dìdi xiūhǎole, “the phone was fixed by [my] younger brother”). Here 手机 (the phone) is the receiver, 弟弟 (younger brother) is the agent, and 修好了 (fixed) is the completed action. The verb usually needs a complement or 了 to feel complete.
The agent can be dropped
A big convenience of 被 is that you can omit the agent when it is unknown or unimportant: 数据被删除了 (Shùjù bèi shānchúle, “the data was deleted”) — we do not need to say who did it. This is common in scientific and technical writing, where the process matters more than the person. Compare English scientific style, which also prefers “the sample was heated” over “we heated the sample.” When you do name the agent, it sits directly after 被: 病毒被科学家发现了 (Bìngdú bèi kēxuéjiā fāxiànle, “the virus was discovered by scientists”).
When to use 被 — and when not to
Unlike English, Mandarin does not use the passive for every non-agent-focused sentence. Many ideas that sound passive in English are just plain topic-comment sentences in Chinese: 手机修好了 (Shǒujī xiūhǎole, “the phone is fixed”) needs no 被 at all. Historically 被 often carried an adverse or unfortunate flavor (被骗, bèi piàn, “to be cheated”; 被批评, bèi pīpíng, “to be criticized”), though modern usage — especially technical and news writing — has broadened it to neutral events. Use 被 when you specifically want to spotlight that the subject underwent the action.
Rewrite the active sentence 科学家发明了这个机器人 (Kēxuéjiā fāmíngle zhège jīqìrén, “Scientists invented this robot”) as a passive that focuses on the robot.
- 1.Identify the parts: agent = 科学家 (scientists), verb = 发明 (invent), receiver = 这个机器人 (this robot).
- 2.Move the receiver to the front as the topic: 这个机器人 … .
- 3.Insert 被 followed by the agent: 这个机器人被科学家 … .
- 4.Add the verb with its completion marker: 这个机器人被科学家发明了 (发明 + 了).
In 数据被删除了 (Shùjù bèi shānchúle, “the data was deleted”), which statement is true?
Do not slap 被 onto every English passive. “The phone is fixed” is most naturally 手机修好了 (Shǒujī xiūhǎole), with no 被. Overusing 被 is a hallmark of translated-sounding Chinese. Reserve it for when you want to stress that the subject underwent something, often an adverse or noteworthy event.
Which sentence is a correctly formed 被 passive meaning “The virus was discovered by scientists”?
On the exam, a well-placed 被 sentence can raise your register when reporting technology news: 新技术被广泛使用 (Xīn jìshù bèi guǎngfàn shǐyòng, “the new technology is widely used”). Just make sure the verb carries a complement or 了 so the passive feels complete.
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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