The passive and negation
21.2
The presence of 给/給 gěi before the verb indicates that the sentence is passive, even when
the passive markers 被 bèi, 叫 jiào, and 让/讓 ràng do not occur.
那个坏人给抓住了。
那個壞人給抓住了。
Nàge huàirén gěi zhuāzhù le.
That bad person was arrested.
The agent of a passive sentence need not be an animate entity. An inanimate entity, a force, or
a situation may also function as the agent. For example:
他们的房子[被/叫/让]火烧了。
他們的房子[被/叫/讓]火燒了。
Tāmen de fángzi [bèi/jiào/ràng] huǒ shāo le.
Their house was burned by fire.
他被学校撤职了。
他被學校撤職了。
Tā bèi xuéxiào chèzhí le.
He was fired by the school.
An agent is obligatory when using the passive markers 叫 jiào and 让/讓 ràng. An agent is
optional for the marker 被 bèi.
他被撤职了。
他被撤職了。
Tā bèi chèzhí le.
He was fired.
When the passive marker is followed by an object, all of the passive markers are interchange-
able. Therefore, all remaining examples in this chapter will be illustrated with only one passive
marker.
21.2 The passive and negation
The function of negated passive sentences is to indicate that some action has not occurred in the
past. Therefore, negation in passive sentences is typically 没/沒(有) méi (yǒu). 没/沒(有)
méi (yǒu) must occur before the passive marking preposition, and never before the verb.
Say this Not this
你的车没有被警察拖走。 *你的车被警察没有拖走。
你的車沒有被警察拖走。 你的車被警察沒有拖走。
Nǐ de chē méi yǒu bèi jǐngchá tuōzǒu. Nǐ de chē bèi jǐngchá méi yǒu tuōzǒu.
Your car wasn’t towed away by the police.
The passive form can also be used when expressing prohibitions and warnings.
别被你的朋友给骗了。
別被你的朋友給騙了。
Bié bèi nǐ de péngyou gěi piàn le.
Don’t let yourself be cheated by your friend.
我们作的事不要被别人知道。
我們作的事不要被別人知道。
Wǒmen zuò de shì bù yào bèi biéren zhīdao.
We shouldn’t let other people know what we did. (lit. ‘What we’ve done shouldn’t be
known by others.’)
C51.1.2
