～（ら）れる
passive, is done / gets done
The passive form turns the sentence around so that the subject receives the action instead of doing it: 読む “read” becomes 読まれる “is read”. The person or thing that performs the action, if mentioned, is marked with に.
English equivalents are “is/was done”, plus (for a very Japanese use) phrases like “got rained on” or “had my wallet stolen”.
1. Direct passive
The subject is on the receiving end of the action, and the doer takes に.
私は先生に褒められた。
“I was praised by the teacher.”
- 私（わたし）= I
- は = topic marker
- 先生（せんせい）= teacher
- に = agent marker (by)
- 褒められた（ほめられた）= was praised
2. The “suffering” passive
Japanese also uses the passive for things that happen to you, usually unwelcome ones, even with intransitive verbs: 雨に降られた = “I got rained on”. The affected person is the subject, and the original object can keep its を.
電車で財布を盗まれました。
“I had my wallet stolen on the train.”
- 電車（でんしゃ）= train
- で = location marker (on/at)
- 財布（さいふ）= wallet
- を = object marker
- 盗まれました（ぬすまれました）= was stolen (had ... stolen)
Same shape as the potential on ru-verbs
On ichidan (ru-) verbs, passive ～られる is identical to the potential: 食べられる can mean “is eaten” or “can eat”. The context decides. On godan (u-) verbs the two stay distinct: passive 読まれる “is read” vs potential 読める “can read”.
How to form it
Godan (u-) verbs: change the final u-sound to its a-row sound (the 未然形) and add れる. Ichidan (ru-) verbs: drop る and add られる. Irregular verbs: する → される, 来る → 来られる（こられる）.
- 読む（よむ）= to read → 読まれる（よまれる）= is read
- 買う（かう）= to buy → 買われる（かわれる）= is bought
- 食べる（たべる）= to eat → 食べられる（たべられる）= is eaten
- する = to do → される = is done
- 来る（くる）= to come → 来られる（こられる）= (someone) comes, affecting me
Key idea
The passive changes the viewpoint: instead of focusing on who does the action, it focuses on who or what the action is done to. The doer is often marked with に.
Built on the same stem
Updated .