Grammar
-되다
Meaning
Intermediate-doeda
A great many Sino-Korean action nouns build an active verb with 하다 and a passive one with 되다 — you simply swap the one for the other: 도입하다 (introduce) → 도입되다 (be introduced), 시행하다 → 시행되다, 발표하다 → 발표되다, 동결하다 → 동결되다, 분류하다 → 분류되다. The 되다 form says what happened without naming who did it, which is exactly why news Korean leans on it so heavily: 조사가 실시되었습니다 reports that a survey was carried out, and leaves the agency that ran it out of the sentence.
Form
Take a Sino-Korean noun that pairs with 하다 and put 되다 in its place: 개방하다 → 개방되다, 금지하다 → 금지되다, 시행하다 → 시행되다. From there it conjugates like any ordinary 다 verb — 발표됩니다, 발표되었습니다 (shortened to 발표됐습니다), 발표될 예정입니다. The thing that is acted on becomes the subject and takes 이/가 or 은/는: 결과가 발표되었습니다. If the doer really has to be named, it is marked with 에 의해, but most 되다 sentences name nobody at all. Note two limits: not every 하다 verb has a 되다 partner (the noun has to be something that can be acted on), and 되다 is also an ordinary verb in its own right meaning 'become', as in 의사가 되다.
Examples
새 도서관은 내년 봄에 시민들에게 개방됩니다.
The new library will be opened to the public next spring.
From: Korea's First Nationwide Farmland Survey Flags 27% for Suspected Violations
모든 암표 부정거래행위가 금지됩니다.
All illicit resale of scalped tickets is banned.
From: Korea to Fine Ticket Scalpers Up to 50 Times the Sale Price From Aug. 28
AI 학업장려 학자금대출이 처음 시행됩니다.
The AI study-support student loan is being put into effect for the first time.
From: Korea Opens 2026 Second-Semester Student Loan Applications, Debuts First AI Study-Support Loan
조사 결과는 다음 주에 발표될 예정입니다.
The results of the survey are scheduled to be announced next week.
From: POSTECH Team Develops World-Leading P-Type Perovskite Transistor, Published in Nature
새 규칙은 다음 달부터 시행됩니다.
The new rule takes effect from next month.
Common mistakes & nuance
Because 되다 hides the doer, a sentence built on it can feel evasive when the doer matters — that is a stylistic choice a reader can notice, not a neutral default. Watch the shape too: it is 시행되다, never 시행이 되다 written as two words with a subject marker jammed in the middle. And keep it apart from -게 되다, which is a different construction entirely.
Similar grammar
- -게 되다
-게 되다 attaches to a verb stem and says that circumstances changed so that something now happens ('it came to be that…'). -되다 is not a separate ending at all — it is the verb 하다 replaced inside a Sino-Korean word to make its passive.
- N이/가 되다
In N이/가 되다 the 되다 is the full verb 'become', and the noun in front is what something turns into (의사가 되다, 'become a doctor'). In 발표되다 the 되다 is fused into the word and carries no 'become' meaning at all.