他被淹死了。

He was drowned.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 他 tā
  1. (third-person singular) (since the early 20th century, usu. male) he; him; his
  2. (bound form) other; another; some other (as in 他日 tārì and 他人 tārén)
=2 被 bèi
  1. quilt
  2. to cover (with)
  3. (literary) to suffer (a misfortune)
  4. used to indicate passive voice (placed before the doer of the action like "by" in English passive-voice sentences, or, if the doer is not mentioned, before the verb)
  5. (since c. 2009) (sarcastic or jocular) used to indicate that the following word should be regarded as being in air quotes (as in 被旅游 bèilu:yóu to "go on a trip")
=2 被 pī
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 披 (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)
  2. alternative form of 披 (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)
=2 被 bì
  1. alternative form of 彼 (bǐ, “that”)
  2. alternative form of 髲 (bì, “wig”)
=2 被 pì alternative form of 帔
3 淹死 yānsǐ to drown
=4 了 le
  1. (completed action marker)
  2. (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now)
  3. (modal particle intensifying preceding clause)
=4 了 liǎo
  1. to finish
  2. (used with 得 dé or 不 bù after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了 wàngbuliǎo "cannot forget")
  3. (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 无 wú or 不 bù) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least
  4. to understand clearly (variant of 了 liǎo)
=4 了 liǎo
  1. (of eyes) bright
  2. clear-sighted
  3. to understand clearly
=4 了 liào unofficial variant of 瞭 liào