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I was reading NHK NEWS WEB EASY and came across the word "被害". When I
encounter a new word, I try to break it down and understand each part.

And then it looked to me like 被害 and 害 have the same meaning, at first.
Wiktionary says that 被 is a prefix that marks the passive recipient of an
action.

So, 被害 would be something like "passive injury"? And 害 would be just "injury"?
Does "passive" just mean "the recipient didn't do anything to have the event
happen to them"?

Do people just use the word 害 alone when they don't want to specify if it's
passive or not?
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2018-07-18T23:14:01.180
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2018-07-18T23:34:57.130
30666
question
nuances
被害 vs 害; 被害者 vs 害者
害 and 被害 are usually not interchangeable. 害 just means "harm", whereas 被害
specifically refers to accidental damage **someone took** due to a crime,
traffic accident, natural disaster or such. If you want to understand 被害
literally, it would be something like "received harm" or "taken damage". (Note
that "passive" is one of the [many meanings of
被](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%A2%AB%20%23kanji).) For example you can say
この番組には害がある ("This TV program is harmful"), but not この番組には被害がある.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-18T23:34:57.130
60218
2018-07-18T23:34:57.130
5010
60217
answer