xuechengfeng Posted August 12, 2005 at 05:27 AM Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 at 05:27 AM Can someone give me a few sentences to demonstrate this? Is it essentialy just an indicator for a passive sentence? Does it always come before the verb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenlan Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:14 AM Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:14 AM “肯尼迪总统被杀了！ You can also put the agent after the bei4. However, i want to point out that this is not a straightforward passive indicator. In proper Chinese, bei4 is only used for negative things, whereas in English the passive is used to discuss even positive things. And I think a "translationese" style of bad Chinese has developed where passive constructions in English have been translated using bei4 in an unnatural way. Don't overuse bei4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenlan Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:19 AM Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:19 AM This site at http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Grammar%20exercises/Bei.htm contains a lot of examples of bei4 in use, but I stick to my guns that bei4 is often translationese, even if that site seems to suggest using it in positive senses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:23 AM Report Share Posted August 12, 2005 at 07:23 AM Take a look at this thread -> passive voice in Chinese? In particular this post -> #26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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