Ask what the sentence puts in focus

A notice says that a meeting time has changed. You need the new time, but you also wonder who changed it. Those are different questions. Korean can put the changed arrangement at the centre of the sentence without identifying the person who made the decision.

This advanced lesson uses familiar vocabulary to practise a harder reading and editing task: choosing between an actor-focused sentence and an affected-subject sentence while preserving what is known. It is a focused guide to passive expressions, not an inventory of every passive or causative verb.

You should already recognise Korean particles and past forms. Read claims and qualifications if you want more practice separating what a text says from what you infer.

Compare two descriptions of one event

In the first sentence, 직원이 identifies the staff member doing the action; 출입문을 identifies the affected door. In the second, 출입문이 is the subject of 닫혔어요. You cannot produce that second meaning by changing only 을 to 이 and leaving 닫았어요 unchanged.

The two sentences can describe the same observed event, but they do not contain the same amount of information. If you saw the staff member close the door, you can choose which detail matters for your report. If you only heard the door close, naming a staff member would add a fact you do not have.

English can translate the second sentence as “The entrance door closed” when the actor is irrelevant or unknown. A Korean passive-type form does not require an English “was” in every translation. Choose English that fits the scene while keeping the information boundary intact.

Learn a few whole verb pairs

Learn each pair as vocabulary with a sentence pattern. The inserted syllable is not a single universal suffix you can attach to every verb. Some forms have other meanings too; 쓰다 alone can mean more than “write,” so check the intended dictionary sense.

Try 담당자가 시작 시간을 바꿨어요. — “The person in charge changed the start time.” Compare 시작 시간이 바뀌었어요. — “The start time changed.” The second sentence is useful when your immediate message is the change itself. It does not establish who authorised it.

Some 하다 pairs use 되다, as in 주최 측이 행사를 취소했어요. — “The organisers cancelled the event” — and 행사가 취소됐어요. — “The event was cancelled.” Treat 취소하다 / 취소되다 as a checked pair; replacing every 하다 with 되다 will not reliably produce natural Korean.

The particles in the opening pair describe that pair. Do not turn them into the absolute claim that a Korean passive sentence can never contain 을/를. NIKL identifies passive verbs that can still take an object, including 떼이다 in a money-loss sense. Check the verb’s sentence pattern when a new example appears to break your shortcut.

Separate the event from the state left afterward

열렸어요 presents an opening event. 열려 있어요 describes the resulting open state. If someone asks whether they can enter now, the state may be the useful answer. An opening event yesterday does not, by itself, guarantee that the door is still open today.

English “is open” describes a state without a passive-looking phrase. Likewise, “a notice is posted” can describe what you see now. Do not force every Korean example into the same English tense simply because the verbs belong together in a vocabulary chart.

Keep state-change expressions separate too. 대기실이 조용해졌어요. means “The waiting room became quiet.” Here -아/어지다 follows a descriptive predicate and expresses a change of state. It is not evidence that an unnamed person performed an action equivalent to “quieted it.” The shape of an ending alone is not enough to classify the whole sentence.

Read a notice and an update together

The following is an original practice scenario. A study group has received a schedule update. Read once for the practical change, then again for the information the text leaves open.

The first sentence reports an announcement. The second supplies the corrected time. The third tells you what the written notice omitted; it does not say that there was no reason. The fourth says a check is still in progress.

From this text, “The organisers changed the time because they booked the room incorrectly” is an invented explanation. The room, booking error and decision-maker have not been established. A useful short summary is 시작 시간은 네 시로 바뀌었고, 이유는 아직 확인 중이다. — “The start time has changed to four, and the reason is still being checked.”

Notice that a cautious summary can still be useful. It gives readers the new time immediately and marks the unresolved part. You do not need to fill every information gap to write a clear paragraph.

Edit the verb and the information separately

First fix the form. For writing on a notice, use 안내문에 새 시간이 쓰여 있어요. — “The new time is written on the notice.” 쓰여 comes from 쓰이다. In this ordinary writing sense, adding another passive layer in 쓰여져 있어요 is unnecessary.

NIKL accepts both 쓰이다 and 써지다 for the passive of “write,” but advises against 쓰여지다 in the cited example because it duplicates passive meaning. That is a specific editing point, not a reason to erase every -아/어지다 you encounter. 조용해졌어요 in the earlier section has a different job.

Next fix unsupported information. If a draft says “The manager changed the time” but the source only says “The time changed,” either find support for the manager’s role or keep the actor unspecified. Grammar correction cannot supply missing evidence.

Finally, choose the sentence that helps the reader. If the responsibility is known and relevant, name the actor: 담당자가 시작 시간을 바꿨어요. If your purpose is to announce the new start time, begin with that time change. Passive wording is not automatically evasive, and active wording is not automatically more accurate.

For practice reporting someone’s explanation later, continue with direct and indirect quotation. Preserve the difference between a confirmed reason and a reason someone is still checking.

Edit for meaning, focus and evidence

For a final editing round, write two lines about the same event: one naming an actor you actually know, and one focusing on the affected thing. Underline the information that disappears in the second version. That difference is often more important than the English label “passive.”

A small listening check

Grammar and editing references

• How to Study Korean: resulting states and changes — Compare -아/어 있다 for a continuing state and adjective + -아/어지다 for a change.
• NIKL: a passive verb that can take an object — The 떼이다 example explains why “no passive ever takes 을/를” is too broad; in Korean.
• NIKL: 쓰이다 and 써지다 — Guidance on the duplicated passive form 쓰여지다; in Korean.
• NIKL: forms with -어지다 — Explains combinations such as 깨끗해지다 and 추워지다; in Korean.

Reviewed September 3, 2026. Found a mistake? Send a correction.