N4 · UNIT 10

Passive

Things done TO you, ほめられる when you're praised, ふまれる when your foot pays the price, and 雨にふられる when the sky itself is against you. Plus のに, the grammar of "even though."

About this unit

The passive is where Japanese gets emotionally precise. Beyond the neutral was-done-by, it has a specialty no English tense matches: the suffering passive, for when the world happens AT you, the rain falls on you, the stranger spills coffee on you, your foot gets stepped on. Add のに, even though, and you have the complete toolkit for the most universal genre of conversation: the story of a terrible day. Maria has one ready.

語彙 · Vocabulary 36 words · 10 kanji

1

Read the words

Read straight down the list once, out loud if you can. Don't grind them here, the Anki deck at the bottom does the memorizing. Right now you only want the shapes and sounds to feel familiar.

WordReadingMeaning
to step on
to steal
to spill
to get wet
to get dirty
to break (something)
to break (by itself)
to lose (something)
to drop
to pick up
to praise
to scold
to laugh
thief
police
wallet
key; lock
essay; composition
about; concerning
nuisance; trouble (to others)
to get angry
to cry
to be surprised
the worst
the best
to build
building
to happen; to get up
famous
owner
heavy
light (weight)
to cut
errand; business
sweater
cafe
2

Learn the kanji

The 10 kanji for this unit. Tap any card to flip between its meaning and its readings, and say the reading aloud as it flips.

snow
have; exist
get up; occur
build
bad
cut
heavy
master; main
public
use; business
3

Read it in context

Everything above, working together. Read the conversation top to bottom, out loud. Every line is built only from words and kanji you have already met, so resist the English, tap a word only if you are truly stuck.

Show English

A snowy February day, retold at the cafe. Maria's morning was a masterclass in the suffering passive, but the day turned around.

マリア
You have to hear this! Today was quite a day.
ゆき
What happened?
マリア
This morning, on the packed train, someone stepped on my foot.
たなか
Oh no...
マリア
Then when I left the station, I got snowed on. No umbrella, I got soaked.
ゆき
You poor thing!
マリア
There's more. At the cafe, the person next to me spilled coffee on me. And it was a new sweater!
ゆき
Ugh, the worst!
マリア
But something good happened too. In class, Yamada-sensei praised me, my essay was the best in class.
たなか
Amazing! What did you write about?
マリア
I wrote about Japanese festivals. You two are in it, by the way.
ゆき
What, I got written about?! I want to read it! Oh, look outside. It's snowing again.
たなか
It might really pile up. We'd better head home early today.
Notice: the doer of a passive sentence takes に, せんせいにほめられました, となりの人にこぼされました. And the strangest, most Japanese line is 雪にふられました: the snow didn't fall on Maria grammatically, she RECEIVED its falling. That's the suffering passive; English simply cannot say it.
Stop, learn the vocabulary before the grammar

These units are short on purpose. The grammar only clicks when the words are already automatic, so front-load the deck here, and let spaced repetition do the memorizing while the lesson does the teaching.

  1. Import this unit's deck. Generate it with npm run content:deck, then import n4-unit10-deck.apkg into Anki or Migaku. (SRS connection status lives on your dashboard.)
  2. Learn all 36 words as new cards. Get through the whole deck in a sitting or two, you're aiming for recognition, not mastery yet.
  3. Review daily until every card reaches a 3–5 day interval. When the whole deck has settled at that spacing, the words are holding on their own and won't fight you during the grammar.
  4. Then come back. You'll read the patterns instead of decoding the words, and that's when a "small" unit actually soaks in.
Anki open with AnkiConnect? I can confirm the deck for you.

Tick the box above once the deck is soaking in, then the grammar unlocks.

文法 · Grammar 4 patterns

Take one pattern at a time. Read the rule, then read each example out loud until the shape feels obvious. The words should already be automatic from your deck, so all you are learning here is how they lock together.

Quick suggestion: write these patterns down by hand as you read them. It is the one habit that textbook learners and self-taught immersion learners both swear by, and a notebook is the cheapest memory upgrade there is. Not required, just recommended.
る-verbs: swap る for られる (見る→見られる, same shape as the potential!). う-verbs: slide to the a-row and add れる (ふむ→ふまれる, 言う→言われる). Irregulars: する→される, 来る→来られる.
My name was called.
This anime is watched all over the world.
Note: Yes, for る-verbs, passive and potential are twins (食べられる = can eat OR gets eaten). Context and particles referee: ケーキが食べられる (edible) vs ケーキを弟に食べられた (eaten on me, by my brother, the crime is audible).
The receiving end of an action: the doer takes に. せんせいにほめられました, I was praised by the teacher. しかられました, got scolded; 聞かれました, got asked.
I was praised by Yamada-sensei.
A stranger asked me for directions.
Note: Japanese prefers keeping the speaker as subject, where English says “someone asked me,” Japanese flips to 聞かれた so the me stays center-stage. It's why passive is everywhere in storytelling.
The uniquely Japanese passive of inconvenience, used even with intransitive verbs. 雨にふられました (got rained on), あしをふまれました (had my foot stepped on), 弟にケーキを食べられました (my cake got eaten on me).
I got rained on heading home.
I had my foot stepped on in the train.
Note: The victim stays subject, the body part or possession takes を: あしをふまれた, さいふをぬすまれた. If the sentence sounds like a sigh, it's this grammar, built-in annoyance is the whole point.
Even though, with feeling. Plain form + のに: 新しいセーターだったのに！ Unlike neutral が／けど, のに carries surprise or complaint: things should have gone differently.
Even though I practiced every day, I lost.
Even though it's snowing, it's not that cold.
Note: な-adjectives and nouns take なのに (雪なのに, 元気なのに). Trailing のに ends sentences on pure feeling: 新しかったのに……, and it was new, too… Use けど for neutral contrast; save のに for when it stings.

文化 · Culture note

A short read on the world these words live in. Nothing to drill here, just the context that makes the grammar feel like something people actually say.

The Grammar of Not Bothering People

The suffering passive exists because Japanese culture runs on the concept of めいわく, the trouble your existence causes others. It's the first word of train announcements (ごめいわくをおかけして…), the core of parental instruction (人にめいわくをかけないで), and the reason the language needed a grammatical form for being-inconvenienced. When your foot gets stepped on in Tokyo, the culture has already decided whose experience matters grammatically: yours.

Rush-hour trains are the suffering passive's natural habitat. Packed cars at 8 a.m. are a masterclass in collective consideration: bags worn on the front, phones silent, conversations at whisper level, sleeping salarymen folded neatly into their own space. The システム works precisely because everyone treats causing めいわく as slightly shameful, and narrates the failures with this unit's grammar: おされた, ふまれた, かばんをはさまれた.

But the passive isn't only for complaints, being praised, chosen, invited, and helped all use it too, and Japanese storytelling leans on it constantly to keep the speaker at the center of events. Listen to anyone recount their day and count the られる endings: Japanese lives are narrated substantially in the passive voice, not because people are passive, but because the language is honest about how much of a day simply happens to you.

Try it: Next time something mildly annoying happens to you, rain, a queue-jumper, a spilled drink, caption it in the suffering passive: ふられた、こぼされた. Complaining in Japanese grammar is both practice and, oddly, therapy.

生教材 · Immersion 3 assignments · real Japanese, on rails

This week in the wild

The passive is the backbone of anime storytelling and every news broadcast, one genre suffers in it, the other reports in it. This week you learn to hear られる both ways.

You will not understand everything, that is the point. Success is recognizing this unit's patterns in the wild, not full comprehension. Tick what you tried and move on.

発話 · Speaking 8 ghost drills · say it out loud

Ghosting

The passive needs mouth-speed most of all, られ clusters tangle tongues. Ghost slowly first, then at pace. The prompts are complaint practice; deliver them with feeling, because feeling is the grammar.

Three passes per line: listen, speak along with the voice (that's the ghost), then speak alone. Out loud, whispering doesn't build the muscle. Prompt drills show English first: answer in Japanese before revealing.

I had my foot stepped on in the packed train.
When I left the station, I got snowed on.
I was praised by Yamada-sensei.
And it was a new sweater!
Say it in Japanese: I got scolded by my mother.
Hint: The doer takes に; しかる → しかられる.
Say it in Japanese: A stranger asked me for directions.
Hint: You stay the subject, 聞かれました.
Say it in Japanese: My little sister ate my cake (on me).
Hint: The suffering passive, the crime takes を.
Say it in Japanese: Even though I studied every day, I still got it wrong.
Hint: のに carries the sting; しまいました seals it.

Audio uses your browser's Japanese voice. If you hear nothing, your system may need a Japanese voice installed, read the lines aloud from the text instead; the ghost pass still works.

練習 · Worksheet 8 exercises

Convert to the passive (or supply the missing piece) and type in hiragana.

Check your answers to continue, it doesn't matter how many you miss.

Unit Quiz JLPT FORMAT

Pass mark 80% · instant explanations · passing unlocks the next unit