The Causative-Passive (使役受け身 / ~させられる) — "made to do"
Level: JLPT N4 · Focus: combining two forms + nuance
This is the boss level of N4 verb forms — but only because it stacks two things you already know. If you've worked through the passive and the causative, you're 90% of the way there. The causative-passive means: someone made me do something, and I didn't really want to. It carries a built-in feeling of reluctance or being put-upon, which makes it wonderfully expressive once you own it.
The idea in one line
Causative: 母は私に野菜を食べさせた。→ "My mother made me eat vegetables." (from the mother's side)
Causative-passive: 私は母に野菜を食べさせられた。→ "I was made to eat vegetables (by my mother)." (from my side — and I wasn't thrilled)
Same event, flipped to the point of view of the person who had to do it. That reluctant feeling is the heart of this grammar.
How to build it
Start from the causative (~させる), then make it passive (~させる → ~させられる).
Group 2 (ru-verbs / 一段): drop る → させられる.
食べる → 食べさせられる
覚える → 覚えさせられる
Irregular:
する → させられる
来る（くる） → 来させられる（こさせられる）
Group 1 (u-verbs / 五段): the full form is -a + せられる, but in everyday Japanese it usually contracts to -される.
書く → 書かせられる — 書かされる
飲む → 飲ませられる — 飲まされる
待つ → 待たせられる — 待たされる
行く → 行かせられる — 行かされる
Note: The one exception: verbs ending in -す do not contract (to avoid a double さ). 話す → 話させられる (never 話さされる). 直す → 直させられる.
So in real life you'll hear 飲まされた far more than 飲ませられた. Both are correct; the short one is more conversational.
Examples that show the feeling
私は部長にお酒を飲まされた。 Watashi wa buchō ni osake o nomasareta. "I was made to drink alcohol by my department head." (I didn't want to)
子供のとき、毎日ピアノを練習させられた。 Kodomo no toki, mainichi piano o renshū saserareta. "As a child, I was made to practice piano every day."
彼女を1時間も待たされた。 Kanojo o ichi-jikan mo matasareta. "I was made to wait a whole hour for her." (annoyed)
会議で意見を言わされた。 Kaigi de iken o iwasareta. "I was made to give my opinion in the meeting."
Notice the recurring flavor: the speaker is the one stuck doing the action, and there's almost always a hint of "…and I'd rather not have." The person who forced it is marked with に.
Particles at a glance
[受けた人] は [させた人] に [もの] を + させられる形 [the person affected] wa [the person who forced it] ni [object] o + causative-passive
私は先生に漢字を100回書かされた。 Watashi wa sensei ni kanji o hyakkai kakasareta. "I was made to write the kanji 100 times by the teacher."
Passive vs causative vs causative-passive — one clean comparison
Using 飲む (to drink):
Plain → お酒を飲んだ。 — I drank alcohol.
Causative → 友だちにお酒を飲ませた。 — I made my friend drink.
Passive → (お酒が)飲まれた。 — The alcohol was drunk.
Causative-passive → 友だちにお酒を飲まされた。 — I was made to drink (by my friend).
Reading this comparison out loud a few times is honestly the fastest way to lock in the difference.
Common mistakes to watch for
Trying to contract -す verbs: 話す → 話させられる only. Never 話さされる.
Losing track of who's who: the subject (は/が) is the victim; the forcer takes に.
Using it for neutral situations: if there's no reluctance, you probably want the plain form or the simple passive instead. させられる always adds that "I had to" color.
Group 1 conjugation slips: 待つ → 待たされる (not 待たされられる — don't double up).
Mini practice
Rewrite from the "victim's" point of view using the causative-passive.
母は私に部屋をそうじさせた。 → ?
先輩は後輩に荷物を持たせた。 → ?
コーチは私を毎朝走らせた。 → ?
Answers
私は母に部屋をそうじさせられた。 (I was made to clean the room by my mom.)
後輩は先輩に荷物を持たされた。 (The junior was made to carry the bags by the senior.) — 持つ → 持たされた
私はコーチに毎朝走らされた。 (I was made to run every morning by the coach.) — 走る → 走らされた
Wrap-up
The causative-passive is really just causative + passive, plus one contraction rule for Group 1 verbs and one exception for -す verbs. What makes it worth mastering isn't the exam — it's that Japanese speakers use it constantly to vent, joke, and tell stories about things they got roped into. Once you can say 飲まされた with the right sigh, you've crossed into much more natural, human-sounding Japanese.
That completes the hard N4 verb-form trio: passive → causative → causative-passive. Read them back to back and you'll feel how neatly they fit together.
If させられる still feels slippery, that's completely normal — it's the kind of thing that clicks in five minutes with a teacher and a whiteboard. I offer relaxed, English-friendly 1-on-1 lessons: book a session. — Naoki, cozykotobar
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