받다 is one of the first verbs every learner meets — 선물을 받다, "to receive a gift." What is less obvious is that this same 받다 is also one of Korean's three passive light verbs. Attached to a Sino-Korean noun, it builds a passive that means "to undergo N as a recipient": 사랑받다 "be loved," 존경받다 "be respected," 초대받다 "be invited." It is the counterpart to adversative 당하다: where 당하다 says the subject suffered something, 받다 says the subject received it. Understanding the split is one of the cleanest ways to sound natural in intermediate Korean.
받다 as a light verb
The literal verb 받다 means "to receive, to accept, to take (something handed to you)." That core meaning stretches naturally into the passive: if you receive an action — someone's love, respect, attention, or education — you undergo it as its recipient. The noun that names the action becomes the thing received.
그 배우는 팬들에게 많은 사랑을 받아요.
geu baeuneun paendeurege maneun sarang-eul badayo
That actor gets a lot of love from fans.
할아버지는 마을 사람들에게 존경받으세요.
harabeojineun maeul saramdeurege jongyeongbadeuseyo
Grandfather is respected by the people of the village.
어제 회사에서 좋은 교육을 받았어요.
eoje hoesaeseo joeun gyoyugeul badasseoyo
I got good training at the company yesterday.
Crucially, 받다 conjugates as a perfectly ordinary verb — 받아요, 받았어요, 받을 거예요 — with no special passive morphology. The passive sense comes entirely from the noun-plus-light-verb pairing.
Two shapes: N을/를 받다 and N받다
Exactly like 당하다, 받다 attaches either with the object particle or fused into one word:
- With 을/를 — 사랑을 받다, 스트레스를 받다, 벌을 받다.
- Fused — 사랑받다, 존경받다, 초대받다, 주목받다, 인정받다.
새 정책이 요즘 언론의 주목을 받고 있어요.
sae jeongchaegi yojeum eollon-ui jumogeul batgo isseoyo
The new policy is drawing media attention these days.
열심히 일해서 드디어 인정받았어요.
yeolsimhi ilhaeseo deudieo injeongbadasseoyo
I worked hard and finally got recognized.
Both forms mean the same thing. Very frequent, short pairings tend to fuse (사랑받다, 인정받다), while others keep the particle (스트레스를 받다). When unsure, the 을/를 version is always acceptable.
Marking the source: 에게(서) / 한테(서) / 께
Because 받다 is about receiving, the giver or source is marked with the dative 에게 / 한테 — or its honorific form 께 when the source deserves respect.
선생님한테 칭찬을 받아서 기분이 좋았어요.
seonsaengnimhante chingchaneul badaseo gibuni joasseoyo
I felt great because the teacher praised me.
부모님께 많은 사랑을 받고 자랐어요.
bumonimkke maneun sarang-eul batgo jarasseoyo
I grew up receiving a lot of love from my parents.
The honest rule: 받다 = "receive," not "positive"
Most textbooks summarize the split as "받다 for good things, 당하다 for bad things." That is a useful first approximation, but it will eventually mislead you, because 받다 pairs with plenty of unpleasant nouns too:
| 받다 with an unpleasant noun | Why still 받다 |
|---|---|
| 스트레스를 받다 — be stressed | stress is something you take on, not an attack on you |
| 벌을 받다 — be punished | a punishment is meted out and received, often as deserved |
| 오해받다 — be misunderstood | you receive a wrong impression, not a direct assault |
| 충격을 받다 — be shocked | an impact you receive from an event |
요즘 회사 일 때문에 스트레스를 많이 받아요.
yojeum hoesa il ttaemune seuteureseureul mani badayo
I'm getting really stressed lately because of work.
거짓말을 안 했는데 오해받아서 억울해요.
geojinmareul an haenneunde ohaebadaseo eogulhaeyo
I didn't lie, but I got misunderstood, and it's so unfair.
So the deeper, more reliable rule is: 받다 = you receive something conferred on you, whether pleasant (사랑, 존경) or not (벌, 스트레스). 당하다 = you suffer a hostile act aimed at you (사기, 무시, 공격). The test is not "good or bad?" but "was this handed to me, or done against me?"
받다 vs 되다: receiving vs a neutral process
받다 also contrasts with the third light verb, 되다. 되다 is the colorless, agentless passive of process and result — 사용되다 "be used," 발견되다 "be discovered" — with no sense of anyone receiving anything. Use 받다 when there is a recipient who gets something; use 되다 when you are simply reporting that a process happened.
이 방법이 널리 사용돼요.
i bangbeobi neolli sayongdwaeyo
This method is widely used. (neutral process — 되다)
그 아이디어가 사람들에게 사랑받고 있어요.
geu aidieoga saramdeurege sarangbatgo isseoyo
That idea is being loved by people. (recipient of affection — 받다)
The full three-way logic of 받다 / 당하다 / 되다 — and how each pairs with the active 하다 — is laid out on the 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 triplet page.
Common Mistakes
1. Using 되다 or 당하다 where the sense is "receive a benefit." "Be loved" is 사랑받다 — you receive love. 사랑되다 and 사랑당하다 are both wrong.
❌ 그 배우는 사람들에게 사랑돼요.
Wrong — love is received; use 받다, not the process verb 되다.
✅ 그 배우는 사람들에게 사랑받아요.
geu baeuneun saramdeurege sarangbadayo
That actor is loved by people.
2. Forgetting that 받다 conjugates like a normal verb. There is no extra passive suffix — just conjugate 받다 itself.
❌ 저는 초대받아졌어요.
Wrong — no 아/어지다 on top; 받다 already carries the passive.
✅ 저는 초대받았어요.
jeoneun chodaebadasseoyo
I was invited.
3. Marking the source with 이/가. The giver is the source (에게 / 한테 / 께), not the subject.
❌ 저는 선생님이 칭찬을 받았어요.
Wrong — the teacher is the source, not the subject of 받다.
✅ 저는 선생님에게 칭찬을 받았어요.
jeoneun seonsaengnim-ege chingchaneul badasseoyo
I was praised by the teacher.
4. Flipping to 당하다 just because the noun feels negative. 오해 and 스트레스 are unpleasant, but they are received, not inflicted as an attack — so they stay with 받다.
❌ 친구한테 오해를 당했어요.
Wrong — a misunderstanding is received, not suffered as a hostile act.
✅ 친구한테 오해를 받았어요.
chinguhante ohaereul badasseoyo
I was misunderstood by a friend.
Key Takeaways
- 받다 doubles as a passive light verb meaning "undergo N as a recipient": 사랑받다, 존경받다, 초대받다, 인정받다.
- It attaches with 을/를 (스트레스를 받다) or fused (사랑받다); it conjugates as an ordinary verb (받아요, 받았어요).
- The source is marked with 에게(서) / 한테(서) / 께, never 이/가.
- The real rule is 받다 = receive, not "positive" — which is why 벌을 받다 and 스트레스를 받다 are natural. It flips to 당하다 only when the noun frames a hostile act against a victim.
- Against neutral-process 되다: use 받다 when a recipient gets something, 되다 when you simply report that a process occurred.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- 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'.
- 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 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 TripletTOPIK 3 — One Sino-Korean action noun spawns three verbs by swapping the light verb: N하다 (active 'do X'), N되다 (passive/inchoative 'become / be X-ed'), N시키다 (causative 'make someone do X') — a clean paradigm covering a huge slice of formal Korean.
- 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.