Passive with 让 / 叫 / 给
特殊句型 / special sentence patterns
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
In speech, the 被 passive has three equivalents: 让、叫、给. Same structure: *patient + 让/叫 + agent + verb + result*.
Key difference: with 让/叫 the agent is required (✗ 我的车让偷了). With 被 and 给 it can be dropped (我的车被偷了 / 我的车给偷了).
As with 被, the verb needs something after it (了, a result, a duration): not ✗ 衣服叫雨淋。The Chinese passive often describes something unpleasant that happened to you.
Examples
我的自行车让人骑走了。
Wǒ de zìxíngchē ràng rén qí zǒu le.Someone rode off with my bike.
衣服叫雨淋湿了。
Yīfu jiào yǔ lín shī le.The clothes got soaked by the rain.
蛋糕给弟弟吃完了。
Dàngāo gěi dìdi chī wán le.The cake got eaten up by my little brother.
这个秘密被记者发现了。
Zhège mìmì bèi jìzhě fāxiàn le.This secret was discovered by a journalist.
Common mistakes
✗ 我的车让偷了。→ ✓ 我的车让人偷了 / 被偷了。
✗ 衣服叫雨淋。→ ✓ 衣服叫雨淋湿了。
✗ Negation after 让: ✗ 他让老师没批评 → ✓ 他没让老师批评。