Monday, 17 April 2017

Useful Korean: Passives

In passive sentences, you should make the object of the sentence the subject and not give focus to who carried out the action.

"She did her homework" In a passive voice, would become "Her homework was done." 


"The women hugged her dog." becomes "The dog was hugged by the women."


Korean verbs are changed to the passive voice by using: 이, 히, 리 or 기. Which syllable you use generally depends on the letter the verb ends with, but in the case of much of Korean language there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, therefore it just comes down to memorising them all.


Verbs ending in vowels or ㅎ normally have added:

보다 ( to see) > 보다 (to show/ to be seen)
쌓다 ( to pile) > 쌓다 (to be piled up)
놓다 (to put) > 놓다 (to be put)
바꾸다 (to change) > 바다 (to be changed)

Verbs ending in ㅂ, ㄷ or ㄱ take :

잡다 (to catch) > 잡다 (to be caught)
읽다 (to read) > 읽다 (to be read)
먹다 (to eat) > 먹다 (to be eaten)
닫다 (to close) >  닫다 (to be closed)

Verbs ending in ㄹ almost always take :

걸다 (to hang) > 걸다 (to be hung)
열다 (to open) > 열다 (to be opened)
듣다 (to listen) > 들다 (to be heard)

Verbs ending in ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅅ or ㅊ take :

안다 (to hug) > 안다 (to be hugged)
쯫다 (to chase) > 쯫다 (to be chased)
담다 (to put something in) > 담다 (to be put in)

When active verbs end in 하다 you can change them to become passive by simply adding 되다 instead of 하다:


이동하다 (to move) > 이동되다 (to be moved)

관찰하다 (to inspect) > 관찰되다 (to be inspected)
기록하다 (to write/ record) > 기록되다 (to be written/ recorded)

Verbs can also be changed by adding 아/ 어/ 여 지다 or 게 되다:


예쁘다 (to be beautiful) > 예뻐지다/ 예쁘게 되다 (to become beautiful)


London Nuna x



Source: Laura Kingdon, 2015, Essential Korean Grammar, Tuttle Publishing.


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