Relative clauses targeting different parts

Question

Consider the main premise as follows,

A boy borrowed a pen from a girl. 男の子は女の子にペンを借りました。

Now consider the following additional premises, each with a different conclusion:

1. The boy is Suzuki Shin.

   男の子は鈴木伸です。

   The boy who borrowed a pen from a girl is Suzuki Shin.　

   女の子にペンを借りた男の子は鈴木伸です。

2. The girl is Hayashi Aimi.

   女の子は林愛美です。

   The girl from whom a boy borrowed a pen is Hayashi Aimi.

   男の子がペンを借りた女の子は林愛美です。

3. The pen is expensive.

   ペンは高いです。

   The pen that a boy borrowed from a girl is expensive.　

   男の子が女の子に借りたペンは高いです。

Questions

1. I am not quite sure the second case above is correct, what do you think?

2. Can we use a passive form in relative clauses? For examples:

   • The pen that was borrowed by a boy from a girl is expensive.

     女の子が男の子に借りられたペンは高いです。

     Warning: I am not sure this passive form is correct.

Answer 1

Q1: Yes, I think those three sentences using active voice are correct, including the second one. And they seem natural, too.

Q2: Yes, we can definitely use passive voice in relative clauses.

男の子は女の子にペンを借りました。

This sentence can be (at least technically) rewritten using passive voice in two ways:

• A: ペンは女の子から男の子に借りられました。 (with ペン as the subject)
• B: 女の子は男の子にペンを借りられました。 (with 女の子 as the subject)

The sentence A may seem tricky because I suddenly used から instead of に. "By X" can be translated as "Xに", but 「ペンは女の子に男の子に借りられました」 is obviously strange, so I had to rethink the particle choice. Do you know that, in the active version, we can also say 「男の子は女の子からペンを借りました」? Knowing this, you can make the former version straightforwardly.

The sentence B is often called 迷惑の受け身, and it implies the girl is bothered by the situation (i.e., she didn't want the pen borrowed). Actually this sentence is not very good because it happens to be ambiguous and can also mean "A girl could borrow a pen from a boy". (借りられる also means "can borrow", as you know) If there's enough context, this won't be a large problem, and we can quickly fix this by using the subsidiary verb しまう to clarify the feeling of 迷惑.

• B2: 女の子は男の子にペンを借りられてしまいました。

I think most people would say this sentence is natural, although the 迷惑 feeling is added which was not in the original active version.

Now we have the correct passive sentences, we can construct relative clauses from them. With the sentence A:

ペンは女の子から男の子に借りられました。
→ 女の子から男の子に借りられたペンは高いです。

Although understandable, this sentence is unnecessarily complicated, and we don't usually say this. Stick to the active version 「男の子が女の子[に/から]借りたペンは高いです」 unless you have a good reason.

And with the sentence B:

女の子は男の子にペンを借りられました。
→ 女の子が男の子に借りられたペンは高いです。
→ 女の子が男の子に借りられてしまったペンは高いです。

I think the last sentence is natural if 迷惑の受け身 is intended.

Answer 2

Before answering your question, I have to point out that the base sentence does not sound right. You would say:

• 男の子は女の子からペンを借りました。 or
• 女の子は男の子にペンを貸しました。

Note you borrow(借りる) from(から) someone. You loan(貸す) something to (に) someone.

1. sounds right except に needs to be replaced by から, i.e.:

女の子からペンを借りた男の子は鈴木伸です。

2. is correct as it is, since no に is used at all. I can't find a better way to preserve the notion of "from" explicitly in this sentence construct.

3. 女の子が男の子に借りられたペンは高いです。

This is possible but very unnatural because of the use of "借りられた". To Japanese ear (I'm native Japanese speaker), it almost sounds as though ペン had its own soul. It sounds like a translated sentence. A more natural way of saying this might be:

男の子が女の子から借りたペンは高いです。

With regard to 高い vs 高価, I agree "高いです" sounds a bit strange, but "高価です" doesn't sound too natural either. To make it sounds more natural, I would put もの (thing) as:

・・・・ペンは高いものです。

Answer 3

You might want to say "The pen a girl lent a boy is expensive."
女の子が男の子に貸したペンは高いです。

高いです sounds colloquial.
I prefer 高価です in formal situations.

I hope this helps you.