Direct Passive: 〜に〜られる | Japanese Grammar

The direct passive (直接受身, ちょくせつうけみ) is the type that lines up neatly with English: it takes the object of an active sentence and promotes it to subject. The teacher praised me → I was praised by the teacher. In Japanese, 先生が私を褒めた becomes 私は先生に褒められた. This page shows the transformation, nails down the particles (the doer is always に), and then makes the deeper point that English learners miss entirely — in Japanese, choosing the passive is a decision about whose viewpoint the sentence takes, not about how formal it is. (For how to build the れる／られる forms, see passive formation.)

The transformation

Take an active transitive sentence. It has a doer (subject が) and a thing acted on (object を). The direct passive does two things:

The object を becomes the subject — usually topicalized with は.
The old subject becomes the agent, marked に.

	Doer	Affected party	Verb
Active	先生が	私を	褒めた
Passive	先生に	私は	褒められた

発表の後、私はみんなの前で先生に褒められた。

happyō no ato, watashi wa minna no mae de sensei ni homerareta

After the presentation, I was praised by the teacher in front of everyone.

私は蜂に刺された。

watashi wa hachi ni sasareta

I got stung by a bee.

子供のころ、よく兄にいじめられた。

kodomo no koro, yoku ani ni ijimerareta

As a kid, I was often picked on by my older brother.

The agent is に — never が, で, or から

The doer of a direct passive attaches to に, period. English "by" makes learners reach for で (means/place) or leave が (the active subject) in place; both are wrong.

犯人は昨夜、駅の近くで警察に逮捕された。

hannin wa sakuya, eki no chikaku de keisatsu ni taiho sareta

The suspect was arrested by the police near the station last night.

Look closely at that sentence: it has both で and に, and they do different jobs. 駅の近くで = where it happened (place); 警察に = who did it (agent). Keeping these straight is exactly the skill this page trains.

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In a passive sentence, で marks the place or means, に marks the doer. When you see both in one clause — 公園でボールに当てられた — read them as "at the park / by the ball," not as two competing agents.

General-truth passives with 〜ている

A very common home for the direct passive is stating a general, ongoing truth about how something is regarded, used, loved, or known — with the 〜ている form. Here the agent is often "everyone / the world," and the sentence leans slightly formal or written (news, descriptions, product copy).

この歌は今でも多くの人に愛されている。

kono uta wa ima demo ōku no hito ni aisareteiru

This song is still loved by many people.

この製品は世界中で使われている。

kono seihin wa sekaijū de tsukawareteiru

This product is used all over the world.

彼女の絵は、日本よりも海外でよく知られている。

kanojo no e wa, nihon yori mo kaigai de yoku shirareteiru

Her paintings are better known abroad than in Japan.

The possessive passive: 弟に自転車を壊された

There is a bridge form between the plain direct passive and the suffering passive: the possessive passive. When someone acts on a thing that belongs to you or is part of you, Japanese makes you — the owner — the subject/topic, while the possessed thing keeps its を.

出かけようとしたら、弟に自転車を壊されていた。

dekakeyō to shitara, otōto ni jitensha o kowasareteita

When I went to head out, I found my bike had been broken by my little brother.

混んだ電車で、知らない人に足を踏まれた。

konda densha de, shiranai hito ni ashi o fumareta

On the crowded train, a stranger stepped on my foot.

Notice 自転車を and 足を stay marked with を even though the sentence is passive — because the true subject is the affected person (me), and the bike/foot is merely what got acted on. This construction almost always carries a whiff of "and it was to my detriment," which is why it points straight toward the suffering passive.

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The possessive passive answers "why is there still a を in a passive sentence?" The person is promoted to subject, not the object — so the possessed thing (自転車, 足, 財布) keeps its を. Compare the plain direct passive, where the thing itself becomes the が/は subject.

The deep point: passive is about viewpoint

Here is what English speakers almost never internalize. In English, active and passive are largely interchangeable and the choice feels stylistic — "a dog bit me" and "I was bitten by a dog" say the same thing, and the active is usually punchier. In Japanese, the choice is about empathy and viewpoint: whose perspective does the sentence adopt?

Japanese strongly prefers to keep a human — especially the speaker — in the subject/topic position. So where English happily says 犬が私を噛んだ ("a dog bit me," with the dog as subject), natural Japanese turns it around to hold me as the topic:

私は犬に噛まれた。

watashi wa inu ni kamareta

I was bitten by a dog.

犬が私を噛んだ is grammatical, but it reads like a detached report about the dog — the kind of sentence in an incident log. 私は犬に噛まれた centers the victim; it is the sentence a person actually says about their own bad afternoon. The passive is not more formal here — it is more me-centered.

The same viewpoint logic explains why the agent is so often dropped entirely. If who did it is unknown or irrelevant, Japanese keeps the affected person as topic and simply omits the に-phrase:

どこかで財布を盗まれたみたいだ。

dokoka de saifu o nusumareta mitai da

It seems I got my wallet stolen somewhere.

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When deciding active vs passive in Japanese, ask "whose story is this?" If it is about a person — and above all if it is about you — the passive that keeps that person as topic is usually the natural choice, even where English would use the active.

Common mistakes

1. Marking the agent with が (leaving the active subject in place). Once you passivize, the old subject must switch to に.

❌ 私は先生が褒められた。

watashi wa sensei ga homerareta

Incorrect — the doer of a passive takes に, so it's 先生に褒められた.

✅ 私は先生に褒められた。

watashi wa sensei ni homerareta

I was praised by the teacher.

2. Using で for the agent. で is place or means; the doer is に.

❌ 兄で叱られた。

ani de shikarareta

Incorrect — the doer takes に: 兄に叱られた.

✅ 兄に叱られた。

ani ni shikarareta

I was scolded by my older brother.

3. Making the body part / possession the subject instead of the person. Over-literal translation of "my foot was stepped on" produces stilted Japanese; natural Japanese makes you the subject and keeps 足 as を.

❌ 私の足が踏まれた。

watashi no ashi ga fumareta

Stilted — Japanese keeps the person as subject: 足を踏まれた.

✅ 足を踏まれた。

ashi o fumareta

My foot got stepped on.

4. Defaulting to the active where Japanese wants the me-centered passive. Not ungrammatical, but the wrong viewpoint.

❌ 犬が私を噛んだ。

inu ga watashi o kanda

Reads like a detached report about the dog, not about you.

✅ 私は犬に噛まれた。

watashi wa inu ni kamareta

I was bitten by a dog (my perspective).

Key takeaways

The direct passive promotes the active object (を) to subject/topic (は) and demotes the active subject to agent (に).
The agent is always に — never が, で, or から (formal writing may use によって).
The possessive passive (足を踏まれた, 自転車を壊された) keeps the person as subject and leaves the possessed thing marked を.
〜ている passives (愛されている, 知られている) state general truths and lean formal/written.
Choosing the passive is about viewpoint — Japanese keeps a human, especially the speaker, as topic — not about formality.

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