Telling what happened to you in Japanese: the passive 借りられました

Level B1

Telling what happened to you in Japanese: the passive 借りられました

You bought a new book, but you haven't read it, because a friend has it. You could simply report what your friend did, but Japanese also lets you tell it from your side: 友達に本を借りられました (tomodachi ni hon o kariraremashita). One idea runs through this lesson: to tell an event from the side of the person affected, the doer takes に and the verb takes the passive. With 借りられました, often only the story, such as whose book it is, separates this passive from the potential.

Recap: whose book, the past and the potential

の shows whose something is: 私の本 (watashi no hon) is my book, and 友達の本 (tomodachi no hon) is a friend's book. A verb's polite affirmative past ends in ました: 駅に行きました (eki ni ikimashita), “I went to the station”. The potential says what's possible: 魚が食べられます (sakana ga taberaremasu), “I can eat fish”. You need all three today, because the new form can look exactly like a potential.

The words for today

借りる (kariru) means “borrow”: you take something of someone else's and give it back later. The people here are 友達 (tomodachi, friend), 母 (haha) and 父 (chichi), the words for your own mother and father. The things are 本 (hon, book), 自転車 (jitensha, bicycle) and 車 (kuruma, car).

Model: the book B hasn't read

Listen once without reading. B bought the book yesterday, so it's B's book. 新しい (atarashii) is new, 買いました (kaimashita) is “bought”, and もう読みましたか (mō yomimashita ka) asks “have you read it yet?”. 読む (yomu) means read, and its potential is 読める (yomeru), like 飲む and 飲める. 読めませんでした (yomemasen deshita) is the past of 読めません, “I wasn't able to read it”. Then listen for B's explanation, 友達に本を借りられました. 来週 (raishū) is next week.

The pattern: who took what from you

借りる drops る and takes られる, which gives the passive 借りられる; the polite past is 借りられました. The person who did it takes に, and the thing stays with を. You're the one it happened to, and here you normally go unsaid; you could add 私は (watashi wa). Swap the person and the thing to tell the same story about your bicycle or your car.

…に…を借りられました

Similar words, three different stories

友達が私の本を借りました simply reports what your friend did: the friend takes が. 友達に本を借りました sounds close, but here you're the borrower, and に marks the person the book came from. 友達に本を借りられました keeps に on your friend, yet the passive ending turns the story around: your friend did the borrowing, and it happened to you.

So don't stop at に: read to the end of the verb. English would usually say “my friend borrowed my book” for the first and the third; “I had my book borrowed” is only there to show the viewpoint.

Passive or potential? The story decides

With 借りる, the passive and the potential sound the same: 借りられました can be either. 図書館で本が借りられます (toshokan de hon ga kariraremasu) is a plain potential: borrowing books at the library is possible. The particles don't always settle it, so look at the story. After 新しい本を買いました, the book is yours, so 友達に借りられました means a friend borrowed it. After 図書館に本がありませんでした (toshokan ni hon ga arimasen deshita, the library didn't have the book), you needed one, so the same words mean you were able to borrow it. Ask whose book it is.

Just to recognize: a passive isn't always a complaint

A borrowed book sounds like bad news because of this story: you wanted to read it. The passive itself doesn't say something bad happened. 先生に名前を聞かれました (sensei ni namae o kikaremashita), “the teacher asked my name”, is neutral, and 友達に「ありがとう」と言われました (tomodachi ni “arigatō” to iwaremashita), “a friend said thank you to me”, is good news. 魚は猫に食べられました, from the potential lesson, puts the doer in に in the same way: 猫に, by the cat. 聞く (kiku) and 言う (iu) don't work like 借りる: their passives 聞かれる (kikareru) and 言われる (iwareru) look different from their potentials 聞ける (kikeru) and 言える (ieru). You only need to recognize these for now.

Not every English passive is a Japanese passive

“This book was written by my friend” is a passive, but in everyday Japanese you'd usually say この本は友達が書きました (kono hon wa tomodachi ga kakimashita). The book becomes the topic with は, the friend takes が, and the verb stays ordinary. Nobody here is affected by the event, so nothing calls for the passive. 書かれました (kakaremashita) does exist, so it isn't wrong, but don't turn every passive into a Japanese one. First ask whether you're telling the event from the side of someone it happened to.

Your turn, and the summary

You bought a new bike, your mother has borrowed it, and you're going by bus today, バスで (basu de). Cover the sentences below and tell that story in three short steps, with 母に in the second. Check only afterwards; a different thing or person is even better. In short: when someone else borrows something of yours, say person + に, thing + を, 借りられました; the story shows it's a passive and not a potential, and this passive tells an event from the affected side, which isn't always bad news.

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