我的卡被机器吞了(The machine ate my card)

我的卡被机器吞了
Wǒde kǎ bèi jīqi tūn le
(The machine ate my card)

René was at an ATM last night when the machine decided it was going to eat up his card. The card was not stuck or jammed in the machine. That would be expressed as follows:


我的卡被机器卡住了
Wǒde kǎ bèi jīqi kǎzhù le

René had heard 卡住了the other day at the office when a sheet of paper got stuck in the photocopy machine:

纸卡住了
zhǐ bèi jīqi kǎzhù le

The next morning René rolled up at the bank to explain what had happened. He had learned from his grammar textbook that the passive marker 被 was often used when you want to express a negative consequence or something unlucky or unfortunate:

今天上午我的电动车行被偷了
Jīntiān shàngwǔ wǒde diàndòngchē bèi tōu le
My electric bicycle was stolen this morning.

Here are two other examples:

1. 昨天银行被抢了
Zuótiān yínháng bèi qiǎng le
The bank was robbed yesterday.

2. 我的钱包被偷了
Wǒde qiánbāo béi tōu le
My wallet/purse was stolen.

René explained what had happened to his card by saying:

我的卡被机器吃掉了
Wǒde kǎ bèi jīqi chīdiào le
(lit:'My card by the machine eaten’)

The bank manager on duty understood what René had said. René could have expressed it by saying:

我的卡被机器吞了
Wǒde kǎ bèi jīqi tūn le
(lit:‘My card by machine swallowed’)