When you do build a Korean passive, the agent — the "by X" that did the deed — needs a particle, and English's one-size-fits-all by splits into three or four Korean markers. Which one you pick is decided not by meaning but by what kind of agent it is (a living being? a force of nature?) and how formal the sentence is. Get this wrong and even a correct passive verb sounds off. The good news: the split is systematic, it rests on animacy, and — a fact worth holding onto throughout — Korean passives very often carry no agent at all, so when in doubt, you can usually just leave it out.
Animate agents: 에게 (neutral) and 한테 (spoken)
When the agent is a living being — a person, an animal, an insect — it takes the dative marker 에게 or its casual twin 한테. These are the same particles you already use for "to someone" with giving and telling; in a passive they mark the being by whom the action was done. 에게 is neutral and belongs in writing and careful speech; 한테 is its everyday spoken equivalent.
쥐가 고양이에게 잡혔어요.
jwiga goyang-iege japyeosseoyo
The mouse was caught by the cat. (에게 — neutral)
저는 어제 모기한테 물렸어요.
jeoneun eoje mogihante mullyeosseoyo
I got bitten by a mosquito yesterday. (한테 — casual)
The two are freely swappable by register: 고양이한테 잡혔어요 is the chattier version of 고양이에게 잡혔어요, and both are correct. Use 에게 when you would use polite full forms, 한테 when you are relaxed with friends. (When the agent deserves honorific respect, the dative rises to 께 — but a respected person is rarely cast as the demoted agent of a passive, so this is uncommon.)
Inanimate forces and causes: 에
When the "agent" is not a living being — rain, fire, a flood, wind, snow — it cannot take 에게/한테. Instead it takes the plain particle 에, the same 에 you use for location and time. Here 에 marks the force or cause by which something happened.
옷이 비에 젖었어요.
osi bie jeojeosseoyo
The clothes got wet from the rain. (에 — inanimate force)
건물이 불에 탔어요.
geonmuri bure tasseoyo
The building burned in the fire. (에 — inanimate cause)
산이 눈에 덮였어요.
sani nune deopyeosseoyo
The mountain got covered in snow. (에 — inanimate cause)
This is the split English never makes: the mosquito that bit you and the rain that soaked you are both "by" in English, but Korean sorts them by whether they are alive. Mosquito → 한테/에게; rain → 에.
Formal agent-backgrounding: 에 의해(서)
For formal, written passives — especially the 되다 passives of news, law, and academic prose — Korean uses 에 의해 (optionally 에 의해서), literally "by means of / owing to." This is the marker that most closely matches the by of a formal English passive ("was passed by the Assembly," "was discovered by Columbus"). It backgrounds the agent while still naming it, and it belongs to an elevated register.
이 소설은 무명 작가에 의해 쓰였다.
i soseoreun mumyeong jakgae uihae sseuyeotda
This novel was written by an unknown author. (written / formal — plain style)
신대륙이 콜럼버스에 의해 발견되었다.
sindaeryugi kolleombeoseue uihae balgyeondoe-eotda
The New World was discovered by Columbus. (written / formal — plain style)
Notice these are in the plain written style (쓰였다, 발견되었다), which is where 에 의해 lives. Drop 에 의해 into a casual chat and it clanks — it is the register of a textbook or a broadcast, not of talking about your day. Its natural partner is the 되다 passive with a Sino-Korean verb.
The register trap: 에 의해 in casual speech
Because 에 의해 lines up so neatly with English by, learners over-apply it to ordinary sentences with animate agents — and it sounds stilted. For a person or animal in everyday speech, use 에게 / 한테, and reserve 에 의해 for genuinely formal agent-backgrounding with abstract or institutional agents.
| Agent | Marker | Register | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| living being | 에게 | neutral / written | 고양이에게 잡히다 |
| living being | 한테 | spoken / casual | 모기한테 물리다 |
| force, substance, event | 에 | all registers | 비에 젖다, 불에 타다 |
| abstract / institutional agent | 에 의해(서) | formal / written | 국회에 의해 통과되다 |
Often, drop the agent entirely
The most native-sounding thing you can frequently do with the agent is leave it out. Korean passives are routinely agentless — the whole reason to passivize is often that the agent is unknown or beside the point. All three of these are complete, natural sentences with no "by X" at all:
문이 열렸어요.
muni yeollyeosseoyo
The door opened. / The door was opened.
지갑을 도둑맞았어요.
jigabeul dodungmajasseoyo
My wallet was stolen. (no thief named)
그 사실이 드디어 밝혀졌어요.
geu sasiri deudi-eo balkyeojeosseoyo
That fact was finally revealed. (no one named as revealer)
If you find yourself straining to attach a "by X," first ask whether the sentence needs one at all. Usually it does not — and if the agent matters that much, the more native move is often to make it the active subject instead, as why Korean prefers the active explains.
Common Mistakes
1. Using 에게 / 한테 for an inanimate force. Rain, fire, and snow are not alive — they take 에, never the dative.
❌ 옷이 비에게 젖었어요.
Wrong — rain is inanimate, so it takes 에: 비에 젖었어요.
✅ 옷이 비에 젖었어요.
osi bie jeojeosseoyo
The clothes got wet from the rain.
2. Over-using 에 의해(서) in conversation. For a mosquito or a dog in casual speech, use 한테/에게.
❌ 나 어제 모기에 의해서 물렸어.
Stiff — 에 의해서 is formal-written; casually say 모기한테 물렸어.
✅ 나 어제 모기한테 물렸어.
na eoje mogihante mullyeosseo
I got bitten by a mosquito yesterday. (informal)
3. Marking an animate agent with 에. 에 is for forces; a living agent needs 에게/한테.
❌ 쥐가 고양이에 잡혔어요.
Wrong — the cat is animate, so 고양이에게 잡혔어요.
✅ 쥐가 고양이에게 잡혔어요.
jwiga goyang-iege japyeosseoyo
The mouse was caught by the cat.
4. Forcing an agent where none is wanted. Naming a vague agent just to fill the slot sounds worse than leaving it out.
❌ 문이 누군가에 의해 열렸어요.
Overwrought for 'the door opened' — just say 문이 열렸어요.
✅ 문이 열렸어요.
muni yeollyeosseoyo
The door opened.
Key Takeaways
- The passive agent is marked by animacy and register, not by one universal "by."
- Living beings → 에게 (neutral) / 한테 (casual); forces, substances, events → 에 (비에 젖다, 불에 타다).
- 에 의해(서) is for formal, written agent-backgrounding — 되다 passives in news, law, and academic prose — and sounds stiff in casual speech.
- Korean passives are frequently agentless; when in doubt, omit the "by X" entirely.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Korean Passives: An OverviewTOPIK 3 — Korean spreads the passive across three systems — the fused suffix 이/히/리/기 (잡히다 'be caught'), the productive -아/어지다 (만들어지다 'be made'), and light-verb passives for Sino-Korean nouns (발견되다, 사랑받다, 무시당하다) — and uses the passive far less than English does.
- Why Korean Uses the Passive Far Less Than EnglishTOPIK 3 — Korean strongly prefers active and topic-fronted sentences where English reaches for the passive: 은/는 topic-marking plus free subject-dropping let the patient come first while the verb stays active — so 'this book was written by a famous author' is naturally 이 책은 유명한 작가가 썼어요, not a be-passive.
- Morphological Passive -히-TOPIK 3 — The passive suffix -히- turns transitive verbs whose stem ends in ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, or ㄺ into passives — 닫다 → 닫히다 'be closed', 잡다 → 잡히다 'be caught', 막다 → 막히다 'be blocked/congested' — with the ㅎ fusing into an aspirated sound.
- The 되다 Passive: N이/가 되다, N하다 → N되다TOPIK 2 — 되다 is the light-verb passive that partners Sino-Korean action nouns and the huge N하다 verb class: swap 하다 → 되다 to get 'be/get X-ed' — 사용하다 → 사용되다 'be used', 시작하다 → 시작되다 'begin'. It's the passive escape hatch for the thousands of 하다-verbs that have no fused suffix passive.
- The Adversative Passive N을/를 당하다TOPIK 4 — 당하다 turns a Sino-Korean noun of harm into a victim passive — 사기를 당하다 'be scammed', 무시당하다 'be ignored' — encoding that the event was bad and the subject a victim, unlike neutral English 'be + past participle'.