KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 30

Korean Lesson: Lessons 30

What are passive verbs? A passive verb is a word that indicates that an action was done in the past - which results in something being in a non-active state after that action. It's hard to explain with words - and much better explained with examples. In this sentence:
I open the door:
The verb "open" is an active verb because the subject (I) is acting on an object (the door). But, in the following sentence:
The door is open:
The subject is actually "the door" and it is in the passive state of "being open." Though it is not explicitly shown, we can infer from that sentence the fact that 'somebody previously opened the door - so now - the door is open'
If you are not good with languages (which I wasn't) it is difficult to understand the difference between active and passive verbs at first. I will show you more examples:
- Active: I turn the computer on
- Passive: The computer is on (which means, somebody had previously turned the computer on - so now it is in the state of being on).
- Active: I turn the computer off
- Passive: The computer is off (which means, somebody had previously turned the computer off - so now it is in the state of being off).
- Active: I lock the door
- Passive: The door is locked (which means, somebody had previously locked the door - so now it is in the state of being locked).
In English, we add is/am/are before a verb to make it passive and usually attach ~ed to the end of a verb:
- lock - is locked
- expect - is expected
- annoy - is annoyed
In Korean, they usually use a different (but very similar looking) verb when saying a passive verb instead of an active one. In this lesson, we will look at the different ways this can be done.
One thing that is absolutely essential in knowing before you start, however, is that in sentences with passive verbs can NOT have objects in them. This means, that you can never use 를/을 in a clause with a passive verb. For example, you can't say: "The man me was found." In that sentence "me" is an object so must be eliminated to say: "The man was found." However, "me" can be used if you want to use another particle on it. In English, we do this by using the particle "by": "The man was found by me."
You will learn about all of this in this lesson.
This is probably the most important paragraph in the entire lesson. It is unnatural to use passive verbs in Korean. Passive verbs are used (quite often, actually) but the main reason they are used is because Korean has been so heavy influenced by English over the past 50 years. In almost every situation, it is more natural to use the active form of a verb. For example, instead of saying "the house is built" it is more natural to say "somebody built the house" (which implies that the house is now built).
One more quick thing - passive verbs are verbs - not adjectives. People sometimes think that they are adjectives because they look, sound and feel similar to adjectives and they never act on objects. Look at the similarities between these two:
The house is beautiful (beautiful = adjective)
The house is built (built = passive verb)
Always remember that passive verbs are verbs. Thus, you must conjugate them as verbs.

Korean Passive Verbs - 하다 to 되다
I've told you twice before that verbs ending in 하다 can usually be separated from 하다 to create a noun form of that verb. 하다 then has the meaning of "do":
나는 일했어 = I worked which has the same meaning of:
나는 일을 했어 = I did work/I worked
When dealing with 하다 verbs, most of the time you can simply exchange 하다 with 되다, to make that verb passive. Look at the following example:
이 값은 세금을 포함해요 = this price includes tax
세금은 포함돼요 = the tax is included
*Adding 어 to 되 creates either 되어 or 돼 with no difference in meaning. (For example, 되다 in the past tense can either be 되었다 or 됐다)
More examples:
Active: 회사는 기계를 대체했어 = The company replaced the machine
Passive: 기계는 대체되었어 = The machine was replaced
Active: 저는 음식을 요리한다 = I cook food
Passive: 음식은 요리됐다= the food was cooked
However, these sentences sound a little bit awkward (in English and Korea n). These types of sentences usually sound more natural when you were to say them like this:
- The machine was replaced by the company
- The food was cooked by my friend
Remember though, clauses ending in a passive verb can NOT have an object - which means that you CANNOT attach 를/을 to "my friend" or "the company." For example, you could not say this:
세금은 값을 포함된다 - this would translate to something like 'Tax included price'
If you wanted to make that sentence perfect in English, you would have to say: "Tax is included in the price." Here, you can use '에' to have the meaning "in the price":
세금은 값에 포함된다 = The tax is included in the price
In addition, the particles 에 의해 or 에게 can also be used to have the meaning of "by" in passive sentences. 에게 is used when it is done by a person, and 에 의해 is used when it is done by something other than a person. Notice that 에게 can have very different meanings if used in other sentences. Also, I am sorry that I haven't taught you about "에 의해" yet. It is not incredibly important, so I was going to teach it in a later lesson... but it needs to be used in some passive sentences - so I have to use it in this lesson without you receiving a formal lesson about it. I try to avoid doing this - but sometimes it is bound to happen. Sorry!:
밥은 제공된다 = food is provided
밥은 학교에 의해 제공된다 = food is provided by the school
그것은 이해되었어 = it was understood
그 것은 학생들에게 이해되었어 = It was understood by the students
집은 청소되었어 = the house was cleaned
집은 아버지에게 청소되었어 = the house was cleaned by my dad
This is getting confusing - but this has to be said here.
Remember the meaning of (으)로 which you learned in Lesson 12. You learned that (으)로 can be used to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out. With means that you can say something like:
저는 집을 청소기로 청소했어요 = I cleaned the house with a vacuum cleaner
But, if you wanted to say that sentence by using the passive verb (to be cleaned), you would have to again use (으)로 as the particle attached to 청소기 because that was the method/tool that was used for it to be cleaned:
집은 청소기로 청소되었어요 = the house was cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas:
집은 청소기에 청소되었어요 = is not correct, although most Korean people would probably understand you.
Wow. Confusing.
It's confusing for me, I'm sure it is confusing to you, and it is actually confusing to Korean people as well - so don't get too hung up on the difference between 에/에게 /(으)로 in these situations because, as I said - Korean people don't use passive verbs as much as they use active verbs.
What do you need to take from all of this? Because it is so confusing, I wrote the main points that you should know:
1. Clauses ending in a passive verb can never have a word with an object marker (를/을) within the clause.
2. Passive verbs are conjugated just like active verbs, even though they feel like adjectives
3. Though clauses ending in a passive verb cannot have an object in the clause, other particles can be attached to nouns to indicate how the passive action occurred. These particles are usually:
1. 에 - as in 세금은 값에 포합된다
2. 에 - to indicate that something occurred due to a non-person
3. 에게 - to indicate that something occurred due to a person
4. (으)로 - to indicate the tool/method in which something occurred
Now that you know all of that, the next few sections should be easy as these rules all apply to the rest of the lesson.

Korean Passive Verbs - 하다 to 받다
In addition to the usual way of switching 하다 with 되다 to make a passive verb - there is another (similar) way of making these verbs passive. This can only be done with certain verbs (usually acting on people), and is done by switching 하다 with 받다 (to receive). For example:
저는 저의 형을 존경해요 = I respect my brother
저의 형는 존경 받아요 = My brother is respected (literally-my brother receives respect)
The same rules apply with 에 and 에서 as described previously:
교장선생님은 선생님들에게 존경 받아요 = The principal is respected by the teachers
나는 너의 말에* 감동받았어 = I was impressed with what you said
*Remember that 말하다 means "to speak." By removing 하다, 말 becomes the noun form of "speak," which is 'words/the thing you said/what you said/etc..."

Korean Passive Verbs - Non-하다 verbs
So far you have only learned how to change ~하다 verbs into the passive tense. There are, of course many verbs in Korean that don't end in ~하다. When dealing with words not ending in 하다, there is often a separate (but very similar) word that can be used to indicate the passive voice. These words will always be presented separately in the vocabulary lists. Here are some examples:
켜다 = to turn on
켜지다 = to be on
끄다 = to turn off
꺼지다 = to be off
닫다 = to close
닫히다 = to be closed
You can treat these passive verbs just like the passive verbs you learned in the previous two sections (되다 and 받다 verbs). Make sure you use the passive verb and not the active verb (for example - use 닫히다 instead of 닫다 in a passive sentence)
밥은 학교에 제공되었어요 = food is provided by the school
문은 바람에 닫혔어요 = The door was closed by the wind
When dealing with these passive verbs however, you need to think about whether or not that passive verb is in the state of something. For example, every passive verb you learned in the previous two sections (하다 to 되다 and 하다 to 받다) were not passive verbs in the state of something. For example, again:
나는 너의 말에 감동받았어 = I was impressed with what you said
Simply means that you were impressed. It does not mean that you are in the state of being impressed. But, in these sentences:
The computer is on.
The TV is off
The door is locked
All of those nouns are in the state of something. The computer is in the state of being on, the TV is in the state of being off, and the door is in the state of being locked. To indicate that something "is in the state" of something in Korean, you must add 아/어 있다 to the passive verb:
저는 컴퓨터를 켰어요 = I turned the computer on
컴퓨터가 켜져 있어요 = The computer is (in the state of being) on
저는 TV를 껐어요 = I turned the TV off
TV가 꺼져 있어요 = The TV is (in the state of being) off
저는 문을 잠갔어요 = I locked the door
문이 잠겨 있어요 = The door is (in the state of being locked)
Notice that when using these 'state' words, 이/가 are used instead of 는/은. Nobody knows why.
These forms can also be conjugated to the past tense as well:
문이 닫혀 있었어요 = The door was (in the state of being) closed
펜이 탁자에 놓여 있었어요 = The pen was (in the state of) laying on the table
In Korean, there are a lot of words that have respective passive and active forms. As I said earlier, you always need to think about whether that verb can be in the 'state' of something. Sometimes these passive verbs cannot be used in a 'state' of something. For example, to make it perfectly clear:
닫다 = to close
닫히다 = to be closed
닫히다 could be used to describe the 'state of being closed' as in:
닫혀 있다 = is closed
속이다 = to trick somebody
속다 = to be tricked
You can say:
나는 친구를 속였어 = I tricked my friend
나는 친구에게 속았어요 = I was tricked by my friend
But, you cannot be in the 'state' of being tricked. Therefore, this does not make sense:
나는 속아 있다 - this would translate to something like 'I am tricked'... which almost makes sense, but doesn't.

Korean Passive Verbs - 내다 and 나다
Finally, there are quite a few words in Korean that can either end in 나다 or 내다.
These two play the same role as 되다 and 하다, where a word ending in 나다 is passive and a word ending in 내다 is active. 나다 and 내다 can actually be used as standalone verbs as well as be attached to other words. Both of their meanings are very complex and depend heavily on the situation, but:
나다 = for something to come up/arise/occur
내다 = to make something come up/arise/occur
Words ending in 나다 can also usually be switched to end in 내다 to change the meaning from passive to active (and vice-versa). However, not all words ending in 나다 have an equivalent 내다 verb (and vice-versa). For example, 어긋나다 is a word (to be out of step with something) but 어긋내다 is not a word. At any rate, the two most common words ending in 나다/내다 are:
끝내다 = to finish
끝나다 = to be finished
고장 내다 = to break
고장 나다 = to be broken
These can be used just like the 하다/되다 verbs:
저는 숙제를 끝냈어요 = I finished my homework
숙제는 끝나요 = My homework is finished... but this always more naturally said in the past tense in Korean:
숙제는 끝났어요 = My homework is finished (literally "my homework was finished")
저는 컴퓨터를 고장 냈어요 = I broke the computer
컴퓨터는 고장 나요 = the computer is broken... but this always more naturally said in the past tense in Korean:
컴퓨터는 고장 났어요 = the computer is broken (literally "the computer was broken")
As I said before, 나다 itself means "for something to come up/arise/occur" which means it can be used in a lot of sentences to indicate that some noun "comes up". Two common ways to use 나다 are with 기억 (a memory) and with 생각 (a thought):
아! 그 것이 기억나다! = Ah! I remember that! (Literally - my memory came up)
좋은 생각이 났어요! = I have a good idea (Literally - a good idea came up)

Korean Passive Verbs - Normal verbs
So far, you've learned about dealing with 하다/되다/받다 verbs, verbs that can be in a state (닫다/닫히다) and 나다/내다 verbs. Sometimes, however, a verb that fits none of these conditions can be put into the passive tense. All that needs to be done in these cases is to add 어/아 지다 to the verb stem to make it passive. Note that this cannot be done with all verbs, but some common examples are:
주다 = to give
주어지다 = to be given (should be 줘지다 but 주어지다 is used instead)
짓다 = to build
지어지다 = to be built (짓 + 어 = 지어) + 지다 = 지어지다
기회가 주어졌어요 = I was given a chance
그 집은 한국에서 지어졌어요 = that house was built in Korea