Indirect passive

The Indirect Passive is a unique feature of Japanese that allows you to center an affected person's experience in a sentence, even if they weren't the direct object of the action. While it often defaults to a first-person perspective where the subject（私（わたし）は）is naturally dropped, third-person subjects are also perfectly grammatical and common in narratives (e.g., 太郎（たろう）は雨（あめ）に降（ふ）られた).

1. Formation:
It uses the standard passive voice conjugation:

• Group 1 (Godan): Change the final -u to -a and add れる. Note: For verbs ending in the vowel う, the ending changes to わ (e.g., 買（か）う → 買（か）われる).
• Group 2 (Ichidan): Remove る and add られる. (e.g., 寝（ね）る → 寝（ね）られる)
• Irregular: する → される, 来（く）る → 来（こ）られる

2. The 'Affected' Subject and Agent:
While English can say 'I got rained on,' Japanese takes this much further. It can passivize many intransitive verbs (verbs that don't take an object) to show the subject was affected (usually negatively), though inanimate state verbs like ある cannot be used. For example, you can passivize 'to cry' or 'to die'—which is impossible in English—to express that someone's crying or someone's death caused you hardship or sorrow. However, animate state verbs like いる can indeed be used in the Suffering Passive (迷惑（めいわく）の受身（うけみ）) to express annoyance at someone's presence (e.g., 家（いえ）にずっといられて困（こま）った - I was troubled by them staying at my house forever). Animacy Restriction: The subject of an indirect passive must be an animate being (usually human) capable of feeling psychological impact or inconvenience. Inanimate objects cannot be the subject (e.g., you can say 私（わたし）は雨（あめ）に降（ふ）られた, but not *洗濯物（せんたくもの）は雨（あめ）に降（ふ）られた). Particle Restriction: The agent (the doer of the action or the cause) is typically marked with the particle に. Unlike direct passives, the agent in an indirect passive generally forbids によって.

3. Possessive Passive:
A common sub-type is when someone does something to your property or body parts. In this construction, the affected person becomes the grammatical subject（私（わたし）は/が）, which is why the object (the thing owned or the body part) keeps the particle を. This is a crucial point for English speakers: instead of making the body part the subject, Japanese centers the person. For example, 'Someone stepped on my foot' is expressed as 私（わたし）は人（ひと）に足（あし）を踏（ふ）まれた, rather than passivizing the foot itself (*私（わたし）の足（あし）が踏（ふ）まれた). Similarly, instead of saying 'A thief stole my wallet,' Japanese speakers often say 'I had my wallet stolen by a thief'（泥棒（どろぼう）に財布（さいふ）を盗（ぬす）まれた）to emphasize their personal sense of loss and annoyance. Note that while indirect passives usually express negative feelings, possessive passives with verbs of praising or admiring can express a positive experience (e.g., 先生（せんせい）に発音（はつおん）を褒（ほ）められた - I had my pronunciation praised by the teacher). Positive Experiences: While the indirect passive usually implies a negative impact or inconvenience, it can occasionally be used for positive or neutral events if the subject is psychologically impacted (e.g., 好（す）きな人（ひと）に隣（となり）に座（すわ）られてドキドキした - I was thrilled when my crush sat next to me). However, to clearly express gratitude for an action done for your benefit, you should use benefactive verbs like 〜てくれる or 〜てもらう. For example, contrast the indirect passive 髪（かみ）を切（き）られた (I had my hair cut—and I didn't want it) with the benefactive 髪（かみ）を切（き）ってもらった (I had my hair cut—as a requested service or favor), which clearly shows gratitude rather than suffering.

4. Transitive Verbs (Non-Possessive):
Regular transitive verbs can also be used in the indirect passive even when the object is not the speaker's property. Crucially, unlike in English where the object of an active sentence becomes the subject of a passive sentence, the direct object in a Japanese indirect passive retains the を particle. This shows the subject was affected (usually negatively) by someone else's action (e.g., 目（め）の前（まえ）で最後（さいご）のケーキを食（た）べられた - someone ate the last cake right in front of me).