Coercive causative passive (ถูก... ให้...)

Corporate and Legal Misdeeds

Before looking at the grammar for being forced to do something, let's learn vocabulary related to serious workplace pressure and legal issues. Words like ยักยอก (to embezzle) and ติดสินบน (to bribe) often appear in these contexts.

The Coercive Causative Passive

To express that someone was forced or ordered to do something against their will, Thai combines the passive marker ถูก with the causative marker ให้.

The standard structure is: ถูก + [Agent] + บังคับ (to force) or สั่ง (to order) + ให้ + [Action Verb].

This is particularly useful when describing high-pressure situations where a person is coerced to บิดเบือน (distort), ปกปิด (conceal), or เปิดโปง (expose) the truth.

Legal Consequences and Settlements

This same structure applies when dealing with the aftermath of misdeeds, such as being ordered to มอบตัว (turn oneself in), ซัดทอด (implicate) others, or do whatever it takes to ยอมความ (settle a case).

Omitting the Agent

As in regular passive sentences, if the person doing the forcing is unknown or obvious from context, you can omit the agent entirely. The structure simply becomes ถูกบังคับให้ or ถูกสั่งให้ followed by the action.