に Particle (Passive / Causative) Japanese Grammar Lesson

に Particle (Passive / Causative) Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Particle

Essential Meaning: By / From (marks the agent or source in a passive or causative sentence)

Construction:

Source + に
- E.g. 先生せんせいに [From the teacher]

Agent + に
- E.g. 先生せんせいに [By the teacher]

Notes:

に (Passive / Causative) is used to used to mark the agent of the main action in causative and passive sentences. For example, “Joe was eaten by a tiger” is a passive sentence in which Joe is the subject and the tiger is the agent of the main action (i.e. eating). Thus, the tiger would be marked by に (Causative / Passive). Similarly, “Greg forced Joe to eat green peas” is a causative sentence in which Greg is the subject and Joe is the agent of the main action (i.e eating peas). Thus, Joe would be marked by に (Causative / Passive). Note that Joe is forced to eat the peas in this example and has little actual agency over the situation. With the causative form, the causee is marked by に (Causative / Passive) when the main verb is transitive, regardless of the causee’s volition. You can learn more about the causative form here.
- E.g. ジョーは虎とらに食たべられた。[Joe was eaten by a tiger.]
- E.g. グレーグはジョーにグリーンピースを食たべさせた。[Greg forced Joe to eat green peas.]

に (Passive / Causative) is also used with verbs such as もらう [To receive], 借かりる [To borrow] , 聞きく [To hear], 習ならう [To learn], and 教おそわる [To be taught] to indicate the source of some favor or action. This construction is analogous to prepositional phrases that begin with the preposition “From“, as in “I received a gift from my mother”, “I borrowed butter from my neighbor”, “John learned karate from his sensei”, et cetera.
- E.g. ジェーンは山野やまの先生せんせいに生花いけばなを習ならった。[Jen learned ikebana from Yamano-sensei.]
- E.g. 僕ぼくはアメリカ人じんに英語えいごを教おしえてもらった。[I learned English from an American.]

When に (Passive / Causative) marks a source of an action or favor, に (Passive / Causative) can be interchanged with から. The difference is that に (Passive / Causative) conveys psychological closeness to a human source, while から does not. Thus, に (Passive / Causative) can not be used when the source is non-human, such as a public or academic institution.
- E.g. ジェーンは山野やまの先生せんせいに生花いけばなを習ならった。[Jen learned ikebana from Yamano-sensei.]
- E.g. ジェーンは山野やまの先生せんせいから生花いけばなを習ならった。[Jen learned ikebana from Yamano-sensei.]
- E.g. ビルは文部省もんぶしょうから奨学金しょうがくきんをもらいました。[Bill received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education.]
- E.g. *ビルは文部省もんぶしょうに奨学金しょうがくきんをもらいました。[Bill received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education.] It is inappropriate to use に (Passive / Causative) when the source is non-human.

Example Sentences:

一男かずおは友達ともだちに手紙てがみを読よまれた。[Kazuo had his letter read by a friend (and Kazuo was not OK with that).]

秋子あきこは浩ひろしにご飯はんを作つくらせた。[Akiko made Hiroshi cook the meal.]

私わたしは父ちちに車くるまを買かってもらった。[My father bought a car for me.]

ジェーンは山野やまの先生せんせいに生花いけばなを習ならった。[Jen learned ikebana from Yamano-sensei.]

A: そのネクタイはだれにもらったんですか。B: 父ちちにもらいました。[A: From whom did you receive that necktie? B: I got it from my father.]

僕ぼくはアメリカ人じんに英語えいごを教おしえてもらった。[I was taught English by an American.]

兄あには私わたしに五時間ごじかんも運転うんてんさせました。[My older brother made me drive for as long as 5 hours.]

A: 吉田よしださんが結婚けっこんしたそうですよ。B: そうですか。だれに聞ききましたか。[A: I heard that Yoshida-san is married. B: Is that so? What did you hear that from?]

WILD Examples:

Listen to this line at 1:20: ガラガラへびに食たべられた、手て当あたり次第しだい食たべられた [I was eaten by a rattlesnake, I was eaten haphazardly] In this example the rattlesnake is the agent that is eating the passive speaker.

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