Time and frequency in passive (被) sentences

[彭浩轩]

I am wondering about the proper place to indicate time and frequency in passive / 被 (/由) sentences.

Consider the example: "Before coming to China, I was often warned about air pollution." I have translated this sentence as 来到中国之前我被常常警告空气污染。

However, I am not very confident that this is the proper placement for 常常, and I hope that "来到中国之前" is still properly placed.

I am sure there are other, better ways to phrase this statement. My purpose of using the passive was so that I would not be forced to indicate who did the warning about air pollution. I know the sentence can probably be rephrased as 来到中国之前我听说空气污染的问题有很多。 , but (for purely scholastic purposes) I am still interested to know know the proper placement of time in such passive constructions, as the above sentence sounds a little clumsy to me. Furthermore, do the same rules apply to 由 constructions? And how about more complex clauses after 被, like, for example the sentence "I have been warned that during the Expo, police are strict on foreigners' visas" ? In such a complex case, would people more often rephrase the sentence to avoid the issue altogether?

[jbiesnecker]

I might say something like 来到中国之前有人家常常警告我空气污染很严重 or something like that, using an non-specific noun for the subject and avoiding the 被 altogether. I'm not a native speaker or all that good at Chinese, though, so giant grains of salt and all that .

I think if you were to use your original sentence, though, 常常 should be before 被. I can't point to a specific rule that makes that so, but it sounds a lot better to my ears before 被 rather than after.

[edited my reply to correct the mistake renzhe pointed out below]

[renzhe]

In this case (there is no subject) 被 has to preceed the verb directly, since they belong together. Therefore, 常常 goes before 被.

The other problem is that the sentence is not complete, as 空气污染 simply means "air pollution". It reads like "I was warned polution". You need to expand it into a statement, like 空气污染很严重

Then it would be 来到中国之前，我常常被警告空气污染很严重.

This also sounds a bit forced, and I'd also favour something more along the lines of "有人警告我".

(EDIT I've just noticed jbiesnecker suggested pretty much the same thing, but 我人家 should be 有人家)

[jbiesnecker]

Ah, thanks for the typo catch renzhe, and the more comprehensive explanation. I knew that 常常被 was right, but I just couldn't put my finger on why.