The Mandarin 被 (bèi) Passive: Saying Something Was Done To the Subject

The principle

The 被 passive takes the thing that something happened TO and puts it first, as the topic. Then 被 introduces (optionally) who did it, followed by the verb and its result.

The basic pattern is:

Receiver + 被 + (Agent) + verb + completion

• 我的车被偷了。 (Wǒ de chē bèi tōu le.) - My car was stolen.
• 他被老板批评了一顿。 (Tā bèi lǎo bǎn pī píng le yí dùn.) - He got told off by the boss.
• 杯子被打破了。 (Bēi zi bèi dǎ pò le.) - The cup got broken.

Think of 把 and 被 as two views of the same event. 把 fronts the doer; 被 fronts the thing affected.

• 小偷把我的车偷了。 (Xiǎo tōu bǎ wǒ de chē tōu le.) - The thief stole my car. (Focus: thief.)
• 我的车被小偷偷了。 (Wǒ de chē bèi xiǎo tōu tōu le.) - My car was stolen by the thief. (Focus: car.)

Same event, opposite spotlight.

The agent is optional

What follows 被 is the agent - the doer. Unlike the English 'by', it can simply be dropped when the doer is unknown, obvious, or irrelevant.

• 杯子被打破了。 (Bēi zi bèi dǎ pò le.) - The cup got broken. (No idea / don't care who.)
• 我的自行车被偷了。 (Wǒ de zì xíng chē bèi tōu le.) - My bike was stolen.
• 门被锁了。 (Mén bèi suǒ le.) - The door has been locked.

When you DO name the agent, it sits between 被 and the verb:

• 蛋糕被弟弟吃了。 (Dàn gāo bèi dì di chī le.) - The cake was eaten by my little brother.
• 我被他骗了。 (Wǒ bèi tā piàn le.) - I was tricked by him.

Note that 把 cannot do this. 把 always needs its doer at the front as the subject. 被 is the only one of the pair that lets the doer vanish, which is exactly why it exists.

The verb needs a completion

This is the rule shared with 把, and the one learners forget. The verb after 被 cannot stand bare. It needs something attached - an aspect 了, a result, a complement, a quantity - to show the action ran to a conclusion.

• 我的车被偷了。 (Wǒ de chē bèi tōu le.) - GOOD: 了 completes it.
• ✗ 我的车被偷。 - WRONG: bare verb, the event hangs unfinished.
• 杯子被打破了。 (Bēi zi bèi dǎ pò le.) - GOOD: 破 (broken) is the result.
• 他被批评了一顿。 (Tā bèi pī píng le yí dùn.) - GOOD: 一顿 (a round of) is the quantity.

The reason is identical to 把: both constructions are about what HAPPENED to the receiver, and 'what happened' means a result, not an open-ended action. A bare verb reports an activity, not an outcome, so it leaves the sentence dangling. See the 把 construction page for the same logic from the doer's side.

The 让 / 叫 / 给 informal passives

In speech, Mandarin often replaces 被 with 让 (ràng), 叫 (jiào), or 给 (gěi). These feel more colloquial, and most of them REQUIRE the agent to be named (unlike 被, which can drop it).

• 我的钱让他拿走了。 (Wǒ de qián ràng tā ná zǒu le.) - My money got taken by him.
• 我的伞叫人借走了。 (Wǒ de sǎn jiào rén jiè zǒu le.) - My umbrella got borrowed by someone.
• 杯子给他打破了。 (Bēi zi gěi tā dǎ pò le.) - The cup got broken by him.

给 is the most flexible of the three: it can even pile on after 被 for extra colloquial colour - 杯子被他给打破了 (the cup got broken by him). The plain 被 is the neutral, slightly more formal choice; 让/叫/给 are everyday spoken alternatives. Be aware that 让 and 叫 also mean 'to make / let someone do' in other constructions, so context decides which job they are doing.

Mandarin uses 被 far less than English

This is the single most important habit to build. English reaches for the passive constantly, and much of it is neutral - 'the report was written', 'dinner is served', 'the bridge was built in 1920'. If you translate every one of these with 被, you will sound stilted and slightly off.

Mandarin's defaults are different. For neutral 'this was done', it prefers either:

1. A plain active sentence, naming or implying the doer.
2. A topic-comment sentence, where the affected thing is the topic and no 被 appears at all.

• 这本书是去年出版的。 (Zhè běn shū shì qù nián chū bǎn de.) - This book was published last year. (Topic-comment, no 被.)
• 饭做好了。 (Fàn zuò hǎo le.) - The food is ready / has been cooked. (Topic-comment, no 被.)
• 这座桥1920年建成。 (Zhè zuò qiáo yī jiǔ èr líng nián jiàn chéng.) - This bridge was built in 1920. (No 被.)

All three are passive in English and none use 被 in Chinese. The affected thing simply sits at the front as the topic, and the verb plus its result tells you what happened to it. Reserve 被 for when you specifically want the passive's affected-victim feel.

The adversity flavour

被 traditionally carries an undertone of something unwelcome happening to the receiver - loss, damage, criticism, being deceived. This is why so many natural 被 sentences are bad news.

• 我被骗了。 (Wǒ bèi piàn le.) - I got cheated.
• 他被开除了。 (Tā bèi kāi chú le.) - He got fired.
• 我的手机被偷了。 (Wǒ de shǒu jī bèi tōu le.) - My phone got stolen.
• 房子被烧了。 (Fáng zi bèi shāo le.) - The house got burnt.

Modern Mandarin, especially in news and formal writing, does extend 被 to neutral and even positive outcomes (他被选为代表 - he was elected as a representative). But in everyday speech the adversity flavour is strong enough that a 被 sentence about something pleasant can sound slightly odd. When in doubt, if the event is good news, prefer the topic-comment or active version.

Negation: where 没 and 不 go

Negation goes BEFORE 被, never after it. The negator sits at the front of the whole 被 phrase.

• 我的车没被偷。 (Wǒ de chē méi bèi tōu.) - My car wasn't stolen.
• 他没被老板批评。 (Tā méi bèi lǎo bǎn pī píng.) - He didn't get told off by the boss.
• 杯子没被打破。 (Bēi zi méi bèi dǎ pò.) - The cup didn't get broken.

Use 没 for a completed-event passive that did NOT happen - this is by far the most common, because 被 reports real events. Note that with 没, the 了 drops, exactly as it does elsewhere: 没被偷, not 没被偷了.

不被 is rarer and reserved for general truths, refusals, or habitual non-occurrence - 'will not be', 'is not the kind to be':

• 我不被这种话影响。 (Wǒ bù bèi zhè zhǒng huà yǐng xiǎng.) - I'm not affected by that kind of talk.
• 真相不会被掩盖。 (Zhēn xiàng bú huì bèi yǎn gài.) - The truth will not be covered up.

For a single past event that didn't happen, reach for 没被. For a standing general truth, 不被.

把 and 被 side by side

Both are 'result' constructions: both demand a completed verb, and both are about the outcome on a specific thing. The difference is purely whose side of the event you stand on.

What to drill

1. Front the affected thing, then 被. 我的车被偷了 - the car comes first because the car is what this is about.
2. The verb cannot be bare. Always attach 了, a result, or a quantity, exactly as with 把.
3. The agent is optional. Drop it when unknown or irrelevant: 杯子被打破了.
4. Don't translate every English passive with 被. Prefer active or topic-comment for neutral 'it was done'.
5. Feel the adversity. 被 leans towards bad news; for good news, reach for another structure.
6. Negate before 被, with 没. 没被偷, and the 了 drops.

For how 被 mirrors the doer-first construction, see the 把 construction page. For the 了 and 没 behaviour the passive relies on, see aspect markers. For the result-and-direction verb endings that supply the compulsory completion, see complements.