Passive

The passive in Japanese is formed by adding rareru to vowel stem verbs and reru to the mizenkei (a ending) of consonant stem verbs. For example Examples of formation of passive verbs

	Plain form	Passive
Vowel stem verbs	taberu	tabe{{different\|rareru}}
Vowel stem verbs	miru	mi{{different\|rareru}}
Consonant stem verbs	toru	tor{{different\|areru}}
Consonant stem verbs	kowasu	kowas{{different\|areru}}

The ru at the end of the passive verb then conjugates like a vowel stem verb ending, with, for example, past tense like taberareta or negative like kowasarenai.

Passive forms of verbs are used as a form of respect language.

There are also lots of transitive and intransitive verbs in Japanese, and the intransitive verbs fulfil some of the same functions as passive verbs in English.