Passive Voice: -이/히/리/기- and -아/어지다

In Korean, the passive voice is not only a mechanical equivalent of English “be + past participle”. It is mainly a change of viewpoint. In an active sentence, the speaker highlights the person who does the action. In a passive sentence, the speaker highlights the person or thing affected by the action.

For example, 문을 열다 means “to open the door”. The subject is the person who opens it. But 문이 열리다 means “the door opens / the door is opened”. Now the door becomes the center of the sentence, and the person who opened it may be unknown, unimportant, or deliberately left out.

Korean has two major passive strategies. The first is lexical passive, where a passive suffix such as -이-, -히-, -리-, or -기- is attached to certain verbs: 보다 → 보이다, 듣다 → 들리다, 열다 → 열리다, 잡다 → 잡히다. The second is the pattern -아/어지다, which often expresses that a state changes or that something becomes a certain way.

A key point for learners is that Korean passive is not always formed freely from every verb. Many passive verbs must be learned as vocabulary. This is why it is better to learn common passive pairs as fixed verb pairs rather than trying to transform every verb mechanically.

A very common type of Korean passive is made with passive suffixes placed inside the verb: -이-, -히-, -리-, and -기-. These suffixes do not attach to every verb freely. Instead, they create established passive verbs that native speakers recognize as vocabulary.

Some common pairs are 보다 → 보이다, “to see” → “to be seen / to be visible”; 듣다 → 들리다, “to hear” → “to be heard / to be audible”; 열다 → 열리다, “to open something” → “to open / to be opened”; 잡다 → 잡히다, “to catch” → “to be caught”; 안다 → 안기다, “to hold someone” → “to be held”.

In these passive sentences, the affected thing is usually marked by 이/가. For example, 문이 열렸어요 means “the door opened / was opened”. The sentence is not focusing on who opened the door. It focuses on the door and the result.

Because these forms are lexical, do not try to guess too aggressively. Learn the common pairs first. Over time, you will develop a natural sense of which passive suffix sounds right with which verb.

When you want to mention who caused the passive event, Korean usually marks the agent with 에게 or 한테 if the agent is a person or animal. 에게 is neutral and written-friendly; 한테 is more common in everyday speech.

For example, 저는 선생님에게 칭찬을 받았어요 means “I was praised by the teacher”. In conversation, 저는 선생님한테 칭찬을 받았어요 sounds natural too. The affected person is the subject or topic, and the doer appears after 에게 or 한테.

For formal writing, news, academic texts, or abstract causes, Korean often uses 에 의해. This corresponds more closely to “by” in formal English passive sentences. For example, 이 법은 정부에 의해 만들어졌습니다 means “This law was made by the government.”

However, Korean often omits the agent when it is obvious or not important. This is one major difference from English. Instead of forcing every passive sentence to say “by someone”, Korean frequently leaves the doer out and focuses only on the result or the affected person.

The pattern -아/어지다 is one of the most useful intermediate Korean structures. It often means “to become …”, especially with adjectives: 좋아지다 means “to get better”, 많아지다 means “to increase / become many”, 추워지다 means “to get cold”. This is not exactly passive, but it shifts attention away from the doer and toward the resulting state.

With some verbs, -아/어지다 can also produce a passive-like meaning. 만들다 becomes 만들어지다, “to be made / to be created”. 쓰다 becomes 쓰이다, but 쓰여지다 is also often heard, especially in the sense “to be written”. In careful standard usage, some double passive forms may be considered less elegant, but learners will still encounter them in real Korean.

The safest way to understand -아/어지다 is this: something changes into a new state, and the sentence focuses on that state rather than on the person who caused it. That is why it overlaps with passive meaning in many contexts.

For web lessons, news, and everyday explanations, this pattern is very important because it lets you describe changes naturally: 날씨가 추워졌어요, 가격이 비싸졌어요, 문제가 해결되었어요, 새로운 시스템이 만들어졌어요.

Korean often expresses passive meaning not by changing the verb internally, but by using a noun plus a support verb. Three very important support verbs are 받다, 당하다, and 되다.

Noun + 받다 usually means “to receive” an action, and it can be positive, neutral, or negative depending on the noun. 칭찬을 받다 means “to receive praise / to be praised”. 도움을 받다 means “to receive help / to be helped”. 연락을 받다 means “to receive contact / to be contacted”.

Noun + 당하다 usually has a negative meaning. It is used when someone suffers something unpleasant: 사고를 당하다, “to have an accident”; 피해를 당하다, “to suffer damage”; 사기를 당하다, “to be scammed”. This is very useful for news, police reports, hospital situations, and serious daily-life descriptions.

Noun + 되다 is common with Sino-Korean nouns and formal vocabulary. 선택되다 means “to be selected”, 결정되다 means “to be decided”, 사용되다 means “to be used”, 포함되다 means “to be included”. This pattern is very common in school, work, research, immigration documents, and official notices.