Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 5 - Intermediate Korean #2 (Lessons 121 to 150) ᚛ Lesson 131 - The passive voice in Korean, passive verbs [피동사]

The passive voice in Korean, passive verbs [피동사]

What is the passive voice?

In English, the passive voice is a grammatical structure that we use naturally without realizing it.

We consider that a classic sentence has an element A that performs an action on an element B. For example, "The cat eats the mouse.". The cat performs the action of eating on a mouse.

The passive voice is actually the reverse: it is element B that undergoes an action by element A. In English, we generally use the auxiliary "to be" followed by the past participle for this.

The cat eats the mouse. (active voice)
The mouse is eaten by the cat. (passive voice)

The children watch television. (active voice)
Television is watched by the children. (passive voice)

The police officer arrests the thief. (active voice)
The thief is arrested by the police officer. (passive voice)

The merchant sells fruit. (active voice)
Fruit is sold by the merchant. (passive voice)

In Korean, the passive voice can be expressed in different ways, through various suffixes or verb transformations. You can consider all these verbs as new verbs to learn, as was the case with causative verbs. However, it is possible to distinguish a few classes of passive verbs (called 피동사 in Korean):

transformed passive verbs
passive verbs in -되다
passive verbs in 받다
passive verbs in 당하다
passive verbs in -아/어지다

There are several hundred passive verbs and it would be difficult to draw up an exhaustive list of them. The goal of this chapter is to make you aware of the use of these verbs in Korean sentences.

Transformed passive verbs

Just like causative verbs, a good number of passive verbs are built with the help of an infix inserted between the stem and the infinitive ending -다, following this pattern:
[Stem][Infix]다

Let’s look at a few examples:

If we add the infix -이- to the verb 쓰다 (= to write), we get the verb 쓰이다 (= to be written)
If we add the infix -히- to the verb 먹다 (= to eat), we get the verb 먹히다 (= to be eaten)
If we add the infix -리- to the verb 팔다 (= to sell), we get the verb 팔리다 (= to be sold)
...

A problem then arises: how do we know which infix to add to the base verb to get its passive verb? There are actually a few infixes that you need to learn in order to create new verbs.

The infix -이-

보다 (= to see) has the passive verb 보이다 (= to be seen, to be visible)
쓰다 (= to write) has the passive verb 쓰이다 (= to be written)
놓다 (= to put down) has the passive verb 놓이다 (= to be put down, to be placed)
덮다 (= to cover) has the passive verb 덮이다 (= to be covered)
쌓다 (= to pile up) has the passive verb 쌓이다 (= to be piled up)
섞다 (= to mix) has the passive verb 섞이다 (= to be mixed)
싸다 (= to wrap) has the passive verb 싸이다 (= to be wrapped)
차다 (= to kick) has the passive verb 차이다 (= to be kicked)

The verbs 바꾸다 and 나누다 are an exception:

바꾸다 (= to change, to modify) has the passive verb 바뀌다 (= to be changed, to be modified)
나누다 (= to divide) has the passive verb 나뉘다 (= to be divided)

The infix -히-

먹다 (= to eat) has the passive verb 먹히다 (= to be eaten)
읽다 (= to read) has the passive verb 읽히다 (= to be read)
닫다 (= to close) has the passive verb 닫히다 (= to be closed)
막다 (= to block) has the passive verb 막히다 (= to be blocked)
잡다 (= to catch) has the passive verb 잡히다 (= to be caught)
잊다 (= to forget) has the passive verb 잊히다 (= to be forgotten)
뽑다 (= to select) has the passive verb 뽑히다 (= to be selected)
꽂다 (= to put in, to insert) has the passive verb 꽂히다 (= to be put in, to be inserted)
밟다 (= to trample, to step on) has the passive verb 밟히다 (= to be trampled, to be stepped on)
묻다 (= to bury) has the passive verb 묻히다 (= to be buried)
접다 (= to fold) has the passive verb 접히다 (= to be folded)
박다 (= to drive in, to hammer in) has the passive verb 박히다 (= to be driven in, to be stuck in)

The infix -리-

팔다 (= to sell) has the passive verb 팔리다 (= to be sold)
풀다 (= to untie, to loosen) has the passive verb 풀리다 (= to be untied, to be loosened)
열다 (= to open) has the passive verb 열리다 (= to be opened)
듣다 (= to hear) has the passive verb 들리다 (= to be heard, to be audible)
걸다 (= to hang, to hang up) has the passive verb 걸리다 (= to be hung, to be hung up)
밀다 (= to push) has the passive verb 밀리다 (= to be pushed)
물다 (= to bite) has the passive verb 물리다 (= to be bitten)
부르다 (= to call) has the passive verb 불리다 (= to be called)

The infix -기-

쫓다 (= to chase, to chase away) has the passive verb 쫓기다 (= to be chased, to be chased away)
믿다 (= to believe) has the passive verb 믿기다 (= to be believed)
씻다 (= to wash) has the passive verb 씻기다 (= to be washed)
끊다 (= to cut, to break off) has the passive verb 끊기다 (= to be cut, to be cut off)
담다 (= to put into) has the passive verb 담기다 (= to be put into)
빼앗다 (= to take away, to steal) has the passive verb 빼앗기다 (= to be taken away, to be robbed of)

The verb 잠그다 is an exception:

잠그다 (= to lock) has the passive verb 잠기다 (= to be locked)