Japanese Grammar: Causative-Passive Verbs

You’re probably thinking, “What the hell is the causative-passive?” All I mean by this are verb structures that combine both the causative and passive to form “to be forced/made to do by” sentences.

Since we’ve already covered both the causative and the passive, we only need to combine the two conjugations to create the causative-passive. Once in the causative form, ALL verbs can be treated as group 2 verbs, and so to change them into the passive we need only replace the final る with られる.

English	Group	Causative	Causative-Passive
to go	1	行いかせる	行いかせられる
to swim	1	泳およがせる	泳およがせられる
to eat	2	食たべさせる	食たべさせられる
to leave	2	出でさせる	出でさせられる
to do	3	させる	させられる
to come	3	来こさせる	来こさせられる

Grammatically, the final ending form (i.e. the passive) dictates the grammar and so the topic or subject is the agent of the action and the target particle に is used to mean “by”.

私わたしはお母かあさんに宿題しゅくだいをさせられた。

I was made to do my homework by my mother.

Unlike the pure causative, there is no ambiguity as to whether someone is making or letting you do something with this structure. As mentioned previously, the passive is often used in a negative sense (the “suffering passive”) which exclusively implies “made to do” when combined with the causative-passive structure.

Incidentally, this is the same as English. We wouldn’t say, “I was let to go home early by my boss”; we would simply say, “My boss let me go home early”.

考かんがえさせられる小説しょうせつ。

A thought-provoking novel (A novel that makes you think).

息子むすこの態度たいどに心配しんぱいさせられている。

I am made to worry by my son’s attitude.

公式こうしきに謝罪しゃざいさせられる。

To be made to publicly apologise.

映画えいがを見みていて、忘わすれていた昔むかしの恋愛れんあいを急きゅうに思おもい出ださせられました。

I was watching a film and was suddenly reminded of (made to remember) an old romance that I’d forgotten.

The Short Form (Crucial for JLPT)

Because the full causative-passive conjugation is a bit of a tongue-twister, Japanese speakers almost always use an abbreviated Short Form for Group 1 (u-verbs) in daily conversation. To form this, simply replace the せら with さ.

• 書かせられる ➔ 書かされる (Made to write)
• 待たせられる ➔ 待たされる (Made to wait)
• 飲ませられる ➔ 飲まされる (Made to drink)

昨日きのう、彼女かのじょに２時間じかんも待またされた。

I was made to wait two hours by my girlfriend yesterday.

The “す” Exception: You cannot use this short form for Group 1 verbs that end in す (like 話す), because it results in a double “sa” sound (話さされる) which is incorrect. You must use the full long form (話させられる). Furthermore, Group 2 and Group 3 verbs never use the short form.