Korean builds most of its formal passives by bolting a light verb onto a Sino-Korean noun. Three light verbs compete for that job — 되다, 받다, and 당하다 — and they are not interchangeable. 당하다 is the specialist for suffering: it takes a noun of harm and asserts that the subject was the victim of it. 사기를 당하다 is "to be scammed," 무시당하다 is "to be ignored / looked down on," 배신당하다 is "to be betrayed." Where English hands you one neutral frame — be scammed, be ignored, be betrayed — Korean forces a stance built into the grammar itself: choosing 당하다 says out loud that this was done to you and that it was bad.
What 당하다 does
On its own, 당하다 is a full verb meaning "to undergo, to be subjected to (something unpleasant)." As a passive light verb it attaches to a noun N and means "to suffer N," with the subject as the one harmed. The doer — if mentioned at all — is an optional agent, not the grammatical subject.
어제 길에서 소매치기를 당했어요.
eoje gireseo somaechigireul danghaesseoyo
I got pickpocketed on the street yesterday.
그 사람한테 사기를 당했어요.
geu saramhante sagireul danghaesseoyo
I got scammed by that guy.
회사에서 갑자기 해고당했어요.
hoesaeseo gapjagi haegodanghaesseoyo
I was suddenly fired from the company.
Notice that 당하다 conjugates as an ordinary regular verb — 당해요, 당했어요, 당할 거예요 — because it is a real verb. The passive meaning lives in the light-verb construction, not in any special morphology.
Two shapes: N을/를 당하다 and N당하다
당하다 attaches to its noun in one of two ways, and both are correct:
- With the object particle — 사기를 당하다, 무시를 당하다. The noun keeps its own particle and stands as a separate word.
- Fused — 무시당하다, 배신당하다, 공격당하다. The noun and 당하다 write together as a single derived verb.
친구에게 배신을 당했을 때 정말 힘들었어요.
chinguege baesineul danghaesseul ttae jeongmal himdeureosseoyo
When I was betrayed by a friend, it was really hard.
그는 동료들에게 계속 무시당했다.
geuneun dongnyodeurege gyesok musidanghaetda
He was constantly ignored by his colleagues. (plain / written)
As a rough guide, longer or more "noun-like" concepts prefer the 를 shape (사기를 당하다, 폭행을 당하다), while short, frequent ones fuse (무시당하다, 거절당하다). When in doubt, the 를 version is always safe.
Marking the agent: 에게 / 한테
The person or force that did the harm is marked with the dative 에게 / 한테 (한테 is the conversational one), never with the subject particle. This is the same agent-marking used across the Korean passive — see marking the agent in passives.
그는 가장 믿었던 친구에게 배신당했다.
geuneun gajang mideotdeon chinguege baesindanghaetda
He was betrayed by the very friend he trusted most. (plain / written)
왜 나만 항상 무시당해야 해?
wae naman hangsang musidanghaeya hae?
Why am I always the only one who gets ignored? (informal / banmal)
The reframing that matters: 당하다 is a stance, not just a passive
Here is the point English speakers must internalize. English be + past participle is evaluatively neutral: "I was invited," "I was ignored," "I was praised" all share the identical grammar, and the good-or-bad reading comes only from the noun. Korean splits that neutral zone in two. The same kind of noun can take 받다 ("receive," welcome/neutral) or 당하다 ("suffer," unwelcome), and the choice is the evaluation.
| 받다 — you receive it (neutral/good) | 당하다 — you suffer it (bad) |
|---|---|
| 초대받다 — be invited | 거절당하다 — be rejected |
| 사랑받다 — be loved | 무시당하다 — be ignored / disrespected |
| 주목받다 — be noticed, draw attention | 공격당하다 — be attacked |
| 인정받다 — be recognized | 이용당하다 — be used / exploited |
So 당하다 is not just "the passive of these verbs." It injects a speaker judgment that the event was harmful and the subject a victim. This is why you cannot mechanically translate an English passive into 당하다 — you have to ask first whether the speaker is casting the subject as a victim. If yes, 당하다; if the thing is received rather than suffered, 받다; if it is a neutral process or result, 되다.
The nouns 당하다 takes
당하다 pairs almost exclusively with Sino-Korean nouns of interpersonal or physical harm. The most common ones are worth learning as a block:
| Noun | 당하다 form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 사기 (fraud) | 사기를 당하다 | be scammed / defrauded |
| 무시 (disregard) | 무시당하다 | be ignored, be looked down on |
| 배신 (betrayal) | 배신당하다 | be betrayed |
| 거절 (refusal) | 거절당하다 | be rejected, be turned down |
| 공격 (attack) | 공격당하다 | be attacked |
| 해고 (dismissal) | 해고당하다 | be fired |
| 이용 (use) | 이용당하다 | be used, be exploited |
| 협박 (threat) | 협박당하다 | be threatened / blackmailed |
| 폭행 (assault) | 폭행을 당하다 | be assaulted |
온라인에서 협박당하면 바로 경찰에 신고하세요.
ollain-eseo hyeopbakdanghamyeon baro gyeongchare singohaseyo
If you're threatened online, report it to the police right away.
그런 사람한테 이용당한 것 같아서 기분이 나빠요.
geureon saramhante iyongdanghan geot gataseo gibuni nappayo
I feel bad because I think I got used by someone like that.
A native-Korean cousin: 맞다
당하다 is the Sino-Korean adversative light verb, but native Korean has its own adversative helper: 맞다. It attaches to native nouns to mean "undergo (something bad)" — 도둑맞다 "be robbed," 매맞다 "be beaten," 바람맞다 "be stood up," 비를 맞다 "get rained on." It carries the same victim flavor as 당하다, just with native rather than Sino-Korean roots.
어젯밤에 지갑을 도둑맞았어요.
eojetbame jigabeul dodungmajasseoyo
My wallet got stolen last night.
소개팅에서 바람맞아서 두 시간이나 기다렸어요.
sogaeting-eseo barammajaseo du sigan-ina gidaryeosseoyo
I got stood up on a blind date and waited a whole two hours.
Common Mistakes
1. Using 당하다 for a good or neutral event. 당하다 only takes harm. Praise, love, and invitations are received with 받다.
❌ 저는 칭찬을 당했어요.
Wrong — praise is welcome, so it can't take 당하다.
✅ 저는 칭찬을 받았어요.
jeoneun chingchaneul badasseoyo
I was praised.
2. Treating 당하다 as a causative ("make someone suffer"). 당하다 is strictly a victim passive. Its subject is the one harmed; it can never mean "cause someone to undergo X." For that you need a causative like 시키다 or 게 하다.
❌ 그가 나를 무시당했다.
Wrong — this tries to make 당하다 mean 'he made me suffer'; 당하다 can't take a causer as subject.
✅ 그가 나를 무시했다.
geuga nareul musihaetda
He ignored / disrespected me. (active 하다 — he is the doer)
3. Marking the agent with 이/가. The harm-doer is an oblique agent (에게 / 한테), not the grammatical subject.
❌ 저는 사기꾼이 사기를 당했어요.
Wrong — the scammer isn't the subject; use the agent particle.
✅ 저는 사기꾼에게 사기를 당했어요.
jeoneun sagikkun-ege sagireul danghaesseoyo
I got scammed by a con artist.
4. Pairing 당하다 with a native verb or a plain adjective. 당하다 attaches to a Sino-Korean action noun, not to a verb stem or a quality.
❌ 저는 맞당했어요.
Wrong — 맞다 is already a verb; you can't stack 당하다 onto it.
✅ 저는 매를 맞았어요.
jeoneun maereul majasseoyo
I got beaten. (native adversative 맞다)
Key Takeaways
- 당하다 is the adversative passive light verb: it takes a Sino-Korean noun of harm and casts the subject as a victim — 사기를 당하다, 무시당하다, 배신당하다.
- It attaches either with 을/를 (사기를 당하다) or fused (무시당하다); both are correct.
- The agent of the harm is marked with 에게 / 한테, never 이/가.
- The 받다 / 당하다 split encodes evaluation: 받다 = receive (welcome), 당하다 = suffer (unwelcome). Choosing between them is choosing a stance.
- 당하다 is never a causative — its subject is always the one who suffers.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- The 받다 Passive: N을/를 받다TOPIK 3 — 받다 'to receive' doubles as a passive light verb for actions you undergo as a recipient — 사랑받다 'be loved', 존경받다 'be respected', 초대받다 'be invited' — the neutral-to-positive counterpart of adversative 당하다.
- 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.
- 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.
- Marking the Agent: 에게 / 한테 / 에 / 에 의해TOPIK 4 — How the demoted 'by X' agent is marked in a Korean passive depends on animacy and register: animate agents take 에게 (neutral) or 한테 (spoken), inanimate forces take 에, and formal written passives use 에 의해(서) — while very often the agent is simply omitted.