Level 5 · Lesson 16

让、叫和被
让, 叫 and 被

我的车让人撞坏了。老师表扬了他。

让 and 叫 are the spoken passives — they must name the agent — and 让 also means 'let'.

听 · Listen

车让人撞坏了
 安娜 —  李明，你的自行车呢？ 
Li Ming, where's your bike?  
 李明 —  别说了！昨天让人撞坏了。 
Don't ask! Yesterday it got hit by somebody.  
 安娜 —  谁撞了你的车？ 
Who hit your bike?  
 李明 —  一个骑车的人。他骑得很快，没看见我。 
A man on a bike. He was riding fast and didn't see me.  
 安娜 —  车坏了，你今天迟到了吧？ 
With the bike broken, you were late today, weren't you?  
 李明 —  对，我叫老师批评了。上个星期他还表扬了我。 
Yes — I got told off by the teacher. Last week he was even praising me.  
 安娜 —  别着急，车可以修好。 
Don't worry, the bike can be fixed.  

讲解 · Explanation

我的车让人撞坏了。我的车叫人撞坏了。我的车被撞坏了。

让 and 叫 are the everyday spoken partners of 被 you met last lesson. All three build the same sentence: thing + 让 / 叫 / 被 + agent + verb + result. The difference is one rule you must not forget — 被 may drop the agent, 让 and 叫 may not. When you have no idea who did it, 被 stands alone (车被撞坏了), while 让 and 叫 need the all-purpose filler 人: 让人撞坏了. In speech 让 and 叫 are far commoner than 被; 被 sounds a little more formal or written.

老师让我们说汉语。妈妈不让我晚上出去。让我看看。

让 has a second, older job: to let or make someone do something. Person A + 让 + person B + verb. Negate it on 让 itself, never on the second verb — 不让我出去, not 让我不出去 (that would mean 'tells me not to go out'). 让我看看 is the polite everyday way of saying 'let me take a look'. Which 让 you are hearing is decided by what follows: a person plus an action means 'let', a verb plus a result means the passive.

老师批评了他。他被老师批评了。老师表扬了我。我让老师表扬了。

批评 (tell off) and 表扬 (praise) are a natural pair, and both are heard very often in the passive because the person on the receiving end is what the sentence is about. Note that the passive is not only for bad news here: 我让老师表扬了 is perfectly good Chinese. Remember too that the verb in a passive sentence is never bare — it carries a result or a 了, exactly as in a 把 sentence.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
让	by (passive); to let, to make	让 + agent + verb: 让人撞坏了
叫	by (passive)	the same 叫 as 我叫李明, used here as 被; the agent may not be dropped
批评	to criticise, to tell off	老师批评了他
表扬	to praise	老师表扬了我
撞	to hit, to bump into	撞坏 zhuàng huài — hit and broken

练习 · Practice

我的自行车 ______ 撞坏了。 You have no idea who hit it. Which marker works with no agent at all?

妈妈 ______ 我晚上出去。 Mum doesn't let me go out in the evening.

我的书让 ______ 拿走了。 Fill in the filler agent: my book got taken by someone.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'The teacher makes us speak Chinese.'

让、叫、被、批评、表扬、撞 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

我的自行车让人撞坏了。我叫老师批评了。妈妈不让我出去。

Say three sentences aloud. First, report a small disaster with 让人 plus a verb and a result — something of yours that got broken, taken or hit. Second, say you were told off, or praised, using 叫 or 让 plus the person. Third, name one thing someone does not let you do: …不让我… Then say the first sentence again with 被, and drop the agent this time: 我的自行车被撞坏了.