The passive voice in Chinese

We all know that in English, there are two voices for a verb: the active voice and the passive voice .

The passive voice is widely used in various circumstances. To my best knowledge, it can be used to:

• describe a situation where the subject who conducts the action is not to be disclosed, or simply unknown, or already known by the public, or not significant to be mentioned, etc. For example:
  • US security system was seriously challenged in the event of 911.
  • I was given a $100 for my 1st day work in the supermarket.
• create a very object tune as the subject is missing. This is quite common in scientific writings.

In Chinese, however,though we have a dedicated word 被 (pronounced as \’bay\’) to describe a passive voice context, it is rarely used in either written or verbal Chinese.

For example:

I was given a $100 for my 1st day work in the supermarket.

It is normally translated as 我第一天在超市工作，收入了100块。

There is no 被 used in this sentence but it is the right Chinese translation. It will be weird if the saying goes like:

我第一天在超市的工作被给了100块。

That is not Chinese, please.

Also, in English, the passive voice applies to transitive verbs only because only a transitive verb can have an object which the action will be applied to, which thus in turn becomes the subject in the passive voice.

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During the recent studies, I am going to introduce a brand new grammar in Chinese into English. The grammar (and the word created by it) is so new that nobody else has ever noticed and paid enough attention to it.

First of all, in Chinese, passive voices are becoming more and more popular with the more and more frequent usage and appearance of the word 被. It is used to describe a situation where the subject is forced, and unwillingly to do something. For example, during the recent days, a lot of websites go for maintenance. They may NOT really want to do so but unpredictable factors will make the maintenance the best option for that time being. So the site master announced that 我们网站正在被维护, or Our site is bei maintained.

Please note the English translation. To emphasize the unwillingness and the almost-sure unhappiness, the literall translation of 被 is used instead of the more traditional being. Such translations can be applied to:

• bei maintained
• bei upgraded
• bei tested

as in the following announcements:

• Our site is bei maintained / bei upgraded / bei tested for technical reasons. Sorry for the inconvenience thus caused…

Secondly, which is even more important to know, the passive voice in Chinese can be applied to intransitive verbs. The most typical usage can be demonstrated in this following sentence:

As the police failed to find the acceptable reason for the public, her death is described as bei suicided.

Well, I won\’t elaborate further on this very particual usage.

So, to conclude:

1. The contemporary Chinese has widely adopted the usage of 被;
2. This usage in Chinese is a bit deviated from the traditional usage of passive voice both in Chinese and in English;
3. To reflect the new usage in Chinese, a new word bei and a new grammar bei + v.-ed should be introduced into English so that the translation from Chinese for these types of sentences can be more accurate.

Above compilation welcomes comments and feedbacks.