How to use 受
Subject + 受 + (agent) + action / influence
受 often presents someone or something as receiving treatment, influence, or an effect. Common combinations concern respect, welcome, interference, criticism, and harm. Some resemble passive sentences because the subject receives an action rather than performs it. Others are better understood as a verb meaning to receive or undergo, followed by the kind of experience involved.
These patterns depend heavily on established combinations. An agent may appear between 受 and the following action when the expression allows it, but 受 is not interchangeable with 被 in arbitrary sentences. Learn the whole phrase and its usual register. The received effect can be favorable or unfavorable, so a negative meaning is not built into 受 itself.
Examples with pinyin and English
张老师的课很受学生的欢迎。
Teacher Zhang's lessons are welcomed by the students.
一个人不一定要变得很有钱或者很成功才会受人尊重。
A person don't have to be rich or successful to be respected.
我受人嘱托来给你送一些钱。
I have been asked to deliver some money to you.
你的手机昨晚一直打不通，我想应该是受信号干扰。
I think I couldn't get through to your cell phone last night because of signal interference.
What to remember
- Learn common 受 combinations as complete expressions.
- An agent is possible in suitable passive-like patterns.
- Do not replace every 被 sentence with 受.
Practise the pattern
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Source and editorial notes
Explanation rewritten for Laowai. Examples are adapted from the Laowai English grammar curriculum, with editorial corrections where needed. The original curriculum credits AllSet Learning’s Chinese Grammar Wiki as used with permission. Read the retained source credits.
Difficulty labels describe the level of the explanation; they are not official HSK placement. Send a correction with this page’s URL.