About
The character "被" is structurally composed of the semantic element "衣", indicating clothing, and the phonetic component "皮", which originally guided its pronunciation and contributed to its early meaning as a quilt or covering garment. From this nominal reference to a textile object, its semantic scope broadened to encompass the verbal action of covering or spreading over, a conceptual extension that later facilitated its grammatical reanalysis into a passive voice marker. This transformation from a concrete term into an abstract grammatical particle shows how the character's form, consistent throughout its history, retains etymological hints of its material origins while its primary linguistic function has shifted entirely to denote syntactic relationships in passive constructions.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我的书被偷了。
杯子被打破了。
他被老师批评了。
昨天，钱包被小偷偷走了。
如果被发现，他会被处罚。
这个计划已经被公司批准了。
由于天气不好，比赛被推迟了。
他的建议被大家认为是合理的。