# Passive with - 게 되다



## idialegre

I would like to ask for some insights concerning the passive construction, particularly the construction with *    verb -게 되다.*

In my Korean textbook, the following sentences are given as examples of changing sentences to the "passive" voice.

나는 내일부터 회사에서 일한다.
나는 내일부터 회사에서 일하게 된다.
우리는 어제 도서관에서 소라를 만났다.
우리는 어제 도서관에서 소라를 만나게 되었다.

Obviously, these are quite different from any Indo-European language (at  least any one that I know,) where intransitive verbs like 일하다 have no  passive voice, and where, in the second example, the sentence would  change to something like "Sora was seen by us in the library," with Sora  becoming the subject, etc.

I'm having difficulty understanding how to think about this construction  with -게 된다. Is it some sort of ergativity? And in particular, is there  any different shade of meaning between the active and passive forms of  the sentences?

I would appreciate any light anyone can shed on this!

Oh, and by the way, is Sora a man's name or a woman's name?

감사합니다!


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## terredepomme

The closest English equivalents would be something like:

It is planned/expected that I start working in the company from tomorrow.

In other words, it gives somewhat an "indirect," "impersonal" or "passive" touch to the statement.


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## Superhero1

1. 나는 내일부터 회사에서 일한다. (o)
2. 나는 내일부터 회사에서 일하게 된다. (x) -> 나는 내일부터 회사에서 일하게 되었다.(o)
3. 우리는 어제 도서관에서 소라를 만났다. (o)
4. 우리는 어제 도서관에서 소라를 만나게 되었다. (x)

Basically, '-게 되다' means that you 'faced' some situation. The situation was influenced by you and other people, not your absolute intention or purpose.

For example, 나는 내일부터 회사에서 일하게 되었다. (this is a correct sentence) means that 

I was not sure I could work there or not until yesterday or this morning, but I got a phone call or E-mail from the company and now I can surely say, 나는 내일부터 회사에서 일하게 되었다. 


나는 내일부터 회사에서 일한다. : we can use this sentence with same situation above, but it doesn't show the former uncertainty or doubt.


Generally we don't use 만나게 되었다.

But we can say '우연히 만나게 되었다.'. it's a very strong collocation. So we always need '우연히'.



소라 : Absolutely woman's name. if a man has a name 소라, his parents must be evil.


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## idialegre

Thanks! Very helpful explanations!


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## stupoh

This thread is very useful for me. Before, I only knew one sample of this construct: 알게 됐다 (_found out_). The way I understand it, -게 됐다 (always past tense) means as it means literally: _became to_, so 알게 됐다 = _became to know_ = _found out_. Of course this only makes sense for the verb 알다, unlike Superhero1's explanation which is universal. 

Anyway, just in case the OP didn't really know, the real Passive Voice construct in Korean is by adding -히 or -이 to the verb, but which verb using which construct is completely beyond me. Some examples: 막다 (_to block)_, becomes 막히다 (_to be blocked_), 바꾸다 (_to change_), becomes 바뀌다 (_to be changed_).


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## rumistar

stupoh said:


> This thread is very useful for me. Before, I only knew one sample of this construct: 알게 됐다 (_found out_). The way I understand it, -게 됐다 (always past tense) means as it means literally: _became to_, so 알게 됐다 = _became to know_ = _found out_. Of course this only makes sense for the verb 알다, unlike Superhero1's explanation which is universal.
> 
> Anyway, just in case the OP didn't really know, the real Passive Voice construct in Korean is by adding -히 or -이 to the verb, but which verb using which construct is completely beyond me. Some examples: 막다 (_to block)_, becomes 막히다 (_to be blocked_), 바꾸다 (_to change_), becomes 바뀌다 (_to be changed_).



I would like to add some notes.
Yes, -히-, -이- express passivity in sentence and -리-, -기-, -되다. also do.

"-이-,-히-,-리-,-기-,-되다*.*"
-이-: 잔디가 깎이다. 물건이 놓이다. 눈으로 덮이다.
-히-: 문이 닫히다. 종이가 접히다. 발이 밟히다.
-리-: 몸이 밀리다. 옷이 걸리다.
-기-: 아기가 안기다. 종이가 찢기다.
-되다.: 이해되다. 간주되다. 설립되다. 

Note that "게 됐다." is the abbreviation of "-게 되었다."
☞ㅣ+ㅓ=ㅐ
If you add -었/았- to a verb, the verb express actions in the past.
먹었다, 읽었다, 두드렸다(=두드리+었+다) ...
놀았다, 잠잤다(=잠자+았+다), 놓았다 ...

*** *청소했다(=청소하+였+다), 노래했다(=노래하+였+다), 공부했다(=공부하+였+다) ...
When you add -았- to the verb -하다, -았- will be changed to -였-.
청소하았다, 노래하았다, 공부하았다.


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## stupoh

Wow, thanks for the thorough notes!


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## idialegre

Does 알게 되었다 (됐다)  mean "found out" as in 나는 사실을 알게 되었다?  Can it also mean that something came to be known or came to light? For example, 사실은 알게 되었다. Would that be correct?


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## alice313

사실을 알게 되었다 is correct, and your guess is right. It means 'I found out~', but it's more like 'I happen to see~' or 'I heard that~'.
사실은 알게 되었다 is wrong. In this sentence, '사실' is subject, so you can't say like this except when there's a man/woman named '사실'. lol
(사실이는 알게 되었다 is more natural though.)


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## Superhero1

나는 (그러한) 사실을 알게 되었다. 

그 사실을 알게 되었다.

한국어가 어렵다는 사실을 알게 되었다. 

You need some information what you notice or who notice about that.


Emma 가 바람 피웠다는 사실은 알게 되었지만, 누구와 바람 피웠는지는 알 수 없었다. If you say like this, you can use '사실은 알게 되었다'. 

I noticed the fact that Emma cheated on me but I couldn't find that who did she have an affair with.


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## 미묘

'사실은 알게 되었다' is not wrong, but its meaning is something different.
You can use that sentence when you hide the fact that you know it already.
So it means 'I happen to see it before, but I don't let you know what I did' or just 'Actually, I happen to see~'


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