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Examples: 物事が多くの人に **知れる** こと vs 物事が多くの人に **知られる** こと

"the condition of things being known by many people"
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question
word-choice
What is the difference between 知れる and 知られる(passive form)?
知られる is a simple passive form of 知る "to be known".

知れる is a [passive-like verb](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/30578/5010)
which can mean the same thing as 知られる, but it also has several distinct
meanings.

  1. "～ is known" (Semantically very close to 知られる, but sounds more literary and stiff. 知れる cannot be used as ["suffer passive"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/1777/5010), either)

>     * 会社に知れたら困る。 (=会社に知られたら困る)
>     * 名の知れた店 (=名の知られた店 =有名な店)

  2. "to be (self-)evident", "to be easily understandable", "it goes without saying", "needless to say"

>     * 原因はすぐにそれと知れた
>     * 行方が知れない (someone) is missing
>     *
> あんなことを言うなんて、[気が知れない](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%B0%97%E3%81%8C%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8C%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84)
>     * 金がないのは先から知れたことだ
>     *
> [言わずと知れた](http://jisho.org/word/%E8%A8%80%E3%82%8F%E3%81%9A%E3%81%A8%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8C%E3%81%9F)

  3. "to seem trivial", "to be not really great", "to be not as good as one may expect"

>     *
> 絵がうまいといっても、[たかが知れている](http://jisho.org/word/%E9%AB%98%E3%81%8C%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B)。
>     * 財産といっても知れたものだ。

Examples are taken from 明鏡国語辞典 第二版.
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5010
5010
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answer