The Notional (Unmarked) Passive | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

When an English speaker says the food is ready or the books are sold out, they reach instinctively for the passive voice — was cooked, are sold. Mandarin does something that feels almost too simple: it names the thing, then states what happened to it, with no passive marker at all. 饭做好了 (the food is ready), 书卖完了 (the books are sold out) — an inanimate topic followed by a verb and its result, passive in meaning but active in form. This is the notional passive, and it is Chinese's default, everyday equivalent of the English passive. You will use it far more often than 被.

The topic-first result frame

The pattern is disarmingly plain: Topic (a thing) + Verb + result element. The topic is an inanimate patient — something that obviously cannot perform the verb — so a listener automatically reads it as the thing acted upon. No 被, no "by," no demoted agent. Notice that the verb never stands bare; it carries a result such as 好, 完, or 干净 that reports the outcome.

Topic (the thing)	Sentence	Meaning
信 (letter)	信写好了	the letter is written
饭 (food)	饭做好了	the food is ready / cooked
书 (books)	书卖完了	the books are sold out
问题 (problem)	问题解决了	the problem is solved
车 (car)	车修好了	the car is fixed
房间 (room)	房间打扫干净了	the room has been cleaned

饭做好了，快来吃！

fàn zuò hǎo le, kuài lái chī!

Food's ready — come and eat! (informal) — the classic notional passive; no 被 needed or wanted.

票都卖完了，我们下次再来吧。

piào dōu mài wán le, wǒmen xià cì zài lái ba

The tickets are all sold out — let's come back next time. (informal)

你的车修好了，可以过来取了。

nǐ de chē xiū hǎo le, kěyǐ guòlái qǔ le

Your car's fixed — you can come and pick it up. (neutral) — what a mechanic actually says.

Why the doer disappears

Here is the deep difference from English. The English passive keeps a slot for the agent — the letter was written by her. The Chinese notional passive has no such slot: the moment you want to name the doer, you must abandon this construction and switch to 被 or a plain active sentence with 把. The notional passive is precisely the construction for when the doer is unknown, obvious, or simply irrelevant — which, in daily life, is most of the time. Nobody cares who cooked the food or sold the tickets; they care that it is done.

This is why the structure works only with a patient that cannot be misread as the actor. 信 (a letter) can't write; 问题 (a problem) can't solve — so fronting them as topic is unambiguous.

信写好了吗？我想早点寄出去。

xìn xiě hǎo le ma? wǒ xiǎng zǎo diǎn jì chūqù

Is the letter written? I want to mail it soon. (neutral)

别担心，问题已经解决了。

bié dānxīn, wèntí yǐjīng jiějué le

Don't worry — the problem's already been solved. (neutral)

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English asks "was it done by someone?"; Chinese asks "is it done?" If you don't need to name or blame a doer, drop the passive machinery entirely and just say 事情 + 动词 + 结果 — thing, verb, result. That instinct alone will fix most over-被 sentences.

The verb still needs a result

The one hard rule the notional passive shares with 把 and 被: the verb cannot stand bare. A result complement (好, 完, 干净, 走…) or at minimum 了 with a bounded reading must close it off, because the whole point is to report a completed outcome. 车修 on its own means nothing; 车修好了 is a finished state.

❌ 房间打扫。

Incomplete — a bare verb reports no outcome; add a result: 房间打扫干净了.

房间打扫干净了，你可以住进来了。

fángjiān dǎsǎo gānjìng le, nǐ kěyǐ zhù jìnlái le

The room's been cleaned — you can move in now. (neutral)

This is the same completion requirement covered on the resultative 好 page: 好 is the workhorse that turns a raw verb into a finished result, which is exactly what a notional passive needs.

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Watch the nuance between 洗了 and 洗好了. 衣服洗了 reports that the washing happened; 衣服洗好了 reports that it's finished and ready. The notional passive usually wants the second — you're announcing a completed state ("it's done"), so lean on a result complement (好, 完, 干净) rather than a bare 了.

衣服洗好了，晾在阳台上呢。

yīfu xǐ hǎo le, liàng zài yángtái shang ne

The clothes are washed — they're drying on the balcony. (informal)

Neutral result? Skip 被

The decision rule in one line: neutral, expected outcomes take the notional passive; adversity or a named agent takes 被. Since almost everything you report in a day is a neutral outcome — the food's done, the homework's handed in, the money's spent — the notional passive is your workhorse and 被 is the exception. The full decision guide lives on the 被 vs notional page.

作业交了吗？老师在等呢。

zuòyè jiāo le ma? lǎoshī zài děng ne

Has the homework been handed in? The teacher's waiting. (informal) — active in form, passive in sense.

Common Mistakes

1. Inserting 被 where the notional passive is idiomatic. For a neutral result, 被 sounds forced and faintly translated-from-English.

❌ 信被写好了。

Unnatural — a neutral 'the letter is written' takes no marker: 信写好了.

✅ 信写好了。

xìn xiě hǎo le

The letter is written. (neutral)

2. Leaving the verb bare. Without a result, the sentence reports no completed state and sounds cut off.

❌ 车修。

Incomplete — add the result: 车修好了.

✅ 车修好了。

chē xiū hǎo le

The car's fixed. (neutral)

3. Tacking the agent onto a notional passive. This construction has no agent slot; to name the doer you must switch to 被 or 把.

❌ 饭做好了阿姨。

Wrong — the notional passive can't carry a doer; use 阿姨把饭做好了 or 饭是阿姨做的.

✅ 阿姨把饭做好了。

āyí bǎ fàn zuò hǎo le

The auntie has finished cooking the meal. (neutral) — name the agent with 把, not a notional passive.

Key Takeaways

The notional passive expresses passive meaning with no marker at all: an inanimate topic + verb + result (饭做好了, 书卖完了, 问题解决了).
It works because the topic is a patient that can't be the actor, so the passive reading is automatic.
It has no agent slot — to name the doer, switch to 被 or 把.
The verb still cannot be bare: it needs a result (好, 完, 干净) or a bounded 了.
It is the default for neutral outcomes; reserve 被 for adversity or a named agent — see the choosing guide.

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