Passive and causative are two of the forms learners reach later, and both do things English handles differently or not at all.
The passive
The passive form, ending in 〜られる, says the subject had something done to it. 食べる (eat) becomes 食べられる (to be eaten).
keeki ga taberareta, the cake was eaten
The suffering passive
Japanese has a use English lacks: a passive that marks the subject as inconvenienced or harmed by an event, even an event with no obvious victim. 雨に降られた (ame ni furareta) literally means "I was rained on", carrying the sense that the rain was an unwelcome problem for the speaker.
kodomo ni nakareta, I was troubled by the child crying
The causative
The causative, ending in 〜させる, covers both "make someone do" and "let someone do". 食べる becomes 食べさせる (make or let eat). Context, and sometimes the particle, decides which.
kodomo ni yasai wo tabesaseru, make the child eat vegetables
Stacked: causative-passive
The two combine into 〜させられる, "was made to do", which carries a clear note of reluctance. 食べさせられた means "I was made to eat it", usually against my will. English needs a whole phrase to land what one Japanese ending does.
Test one of these examples in the translator and see how it comes out.
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