Browse Grammar Essentials
Chapter 2

Passive Voice — Bị vs Được

Bị động — bị và được

Vietnamese has no single passive voice. Instead, two little words — bị and được — sit in front of the verb and tell the listener how the speaker feels about what happened. Được means the subject ended up on the lucky side of the action (got a raise, got picked, got the day off). Bị means the subject ended up on the unlucky side (got fined, got fired, got rained on). The same event can take either word depending on whose perspective you're voicing. Master this and you sound human in Vietnamese instead of textbook-stiff.

Level focus: A2-B1 Southern-first 154 views

Vietnamese doesn't conjugate verbs and it doesn't have a clean equivalent of the English passive ("was hit", "is being built"). What it has instead is far more expressive: two markers that drop in front of the verb and color the whole sentence with feeling.

Được means the subject got something good out of this action.
Bị means the subject got something bad out of this action.

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Illustration for the Vietnamese grammar pattern Passive Voice — Bị vs Được