Level 5 · Advanced
Up to whom: 由
Task + 由 + Person + Verb
由 (yóu) hands out responsibility: 晚饭由我来做 "dinner's on me (to cook)." The task comes first as the topic, 由 names who's in charge of it, and the verb closes: 会议由王老师主持 "the meeting will be chaired by Teacher Wang."
It looks passive-ish but carries zero victim flavor — that's the difference from 被, which reports something happening TO someone. 由 is for duty rosters, announcements, and dividing up work.
Examples
晚饭由我来做。
晚飯由我來做。
wǎn fàn yóu wǒ lái zuò
I'll be the one making dinner.
这件事由你决定。
這件事由你決定。
zhè jiàn shì yóu nǐ jué dìng
This is your call.
会议由王老师主持。
會議由王老師主持。
huì yì yóu wáng lǎo shī zhǔ chí
The meeting will be chaired by Teacher Wang.
这次旅行的费用由公司支付。
這次旅行的費用由公司支付。
zhè cì lǚ xíng de fèi yòng yóu gōng sī zhī fù
The company will cover the costs of this trip.
Common mistakes
✗ 蛋糕由弟弟吃光了。
✓ 蛋糕被弟弟吃光了。
由 assigns responsibility for a task; for things that happened to a victim, use 被.
Related grammar points
Practice this pattern in graded stories like Signing the Contract (Part 5) inside the Literate Chinese app.
