把 + agent + V + 了: 把老公跑了 (suffering a loss)
【高88】把字句 / special sentence patterns
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
In 把 + O + V + 了, what follows 把 is not the thing acted on (把门关了) but the one who performs the verb: 她把丈夫死了, “her husband died on her”. The subject does nothing: it suffers a loss. The standard lists this use among the “causative” 把 sentences (表致使); here we teach only the sense its examples show, the loss of someone close who dies or leaves (死, 跑).
English has a near parallel in “have X die on you / walk out on you”: “his partner walked out on him”, “her husband died on her”. The verb is intransitive and bare: you add 了 and nothing else. The sentence often follows a failure that makes things worse: 钱没挣着，却 / 倒把老公跑了。
Spoken register, plaintive or bitter, quite blunt (the standard writes 把丈夫死了, then 父母也去世了 with the polite verb). It is a pattern to recognise more than to produce. Do not confuse it with the ordinary 把 (level 3: 把门关了), where the subject acts on the object.
Examples
去年她把丈夫死了，后来父母也去世了。
Qùnián tā bǎ zhàngfu sǐ le, hòulái fùmǔ yě qùshì le.Last year her husband died on her, and later her parents passed away too.
钱没挣着，却把老公跑了。
Qián méi zhèng zháo, què bǎ lǎogōng pǎo le.She earned no money, and on top of that her husband walked out on her.
他生意没做起来，倒把搭档跑了。
Tā shēngyi méi zuò qǐlái, dào bǎ dādàng pǎo le.His business never took off, and then his partner walked out on him.
小店开了三年，钱没赚着，还把两个徒弟跑了。
Xiǎodiàn kāi le sān nián, qián méi zhuàn zháo, hái bǎ liǎng ge túdì pǎo le.The little shop ran for three years: no money made, and two apprentices walked out as well.
她三十岁那年把丈夫死了，一个人撑起了这个家。
Tā sānshí suì nà nián bǎ zhàngfu sǐ le, yí ge rén chēng qǐ le zhège jiā.The year she turned thirty her husband died on her, and she held the family up alone.
Common mistakes
✗ 我把朋友来了。 → ✓ 朋友来了。 (this pattern tells of a misfortune suffered: a verb like 来, which is no loss, does not fit).
✗ 她把丈夫死。 → ✓ 她把丈夫死了。 (了 is required and nothing else follows the verb).
✗ reading 他把搭档跑了 as “he made his partner run” → it is the partner who left, and the subject who suffers for it.