Passive with 被

In English, passive voice is extremely common: "The cake was eaten," "The window was broken." Chinese has a similar structure using 被 (bèi). The basic pattern is: Receiver + 被 + (Doer) + Verb + Complement. For example, 蛋糕被吃了 means "The cake was eaten."

Traditionally, 被 carries an unfortunate or unpleasant tone — it implies something bad happened to the subject. "My phone was stolen" (我的手机被偷了) is a classic use. However, under the influence of translated media and formal writing, 被 is increasingly used in neutral contexts too, such as 他被选为班长 (He was elected class president).

Like the 把 sentence, the verb in a 被 sentence cannot stand alone. It must have a complement, 了, or another element after it. You cannot say 蛋糕被吃 — it must be 蛋糕被吃了 or 蛋糕被吃完了. The doer can be omitted when unknown or unimportant: 窗户被打破了 (The window was broken).

When the doer is included, it goes between 被 and the verb: 我被老师批评了 (I was criticized by the teacher). Negation and adverbs go before 被: 我没被批评 (I wasn't criticized), 我又被骂了 (I was scolded again).