Help!

[Annihilator]

How would you say what "state" something is in? Like...after a verb has already been applied to it I guess.
For example...

The food has already been eaten

He had already been killed when we found him

The box in the old house was smashed to bits

Their house was demolished

The table had already been moved

[maxiewawa]

Phew! That's quite difficult.

If I'm not mistaken, each of the sentences you've asked involves the -rareru verb ending.

Tabemono ha mou taberareta.

Mitsuketa toki ni, mou korasareta.

??

??

Teeburu ha mou ugokareta.

Remove the 'u' from the verb ending and add 'areru' to it. Then you have the ending which means "has been *~ed" ending.

[WalterWills]

To say an object has had something done to it, without needing to specify who or what did it, you use the passive form of the verb, and I'm not sure but もう could be used to express "already".

The food has already been eaten.
食べ物はもう食べられました。

He had already been killed when we found him.
彼を見付けた時、もう殺されました。

The box in the old house was smashed to bits.
古い家にある箱はめちゃめちゃに壊されました。

Their house was demolished.
彼らの家は取り壊されました。

The table had already been moved.
テーブルはもう動かされました。

(I'm not sure if all my translations are correct!)

So for you add either ーられる or ーあれる (and change those endings accordingly) depending on what kind of verb it is.

Ichidan verbs: 食べる・見る (for example)
食べ・られる
見・られる

Yodan verbs: 盗む・知る・書く (for example)
盗む　＞　盗まれる
知る　＞　知られる
書く　＞　書かれる


This grammar is new to me too, and I guess it's where you need to start thinking about transitive and intransitive verbs, because it wouldn't make sense to use this form for certain action-verbs (unless you're using what my book calls the "adversity" passive, but that's another thing).

[hatch_jp]

How would you say what "state" something is in? Like...after a verb has already been applied to it I guess.
For example...

The food has already been eaten

He had already been killed when we found him

The box in the old house was smashed to bits

Their house was demolished

The table had already been moved

The food has already been eaten
料理（食べ物）は、すでに食べられています。

He had already been killed when we found him
彼を見つけたとき、すでに殺されていました。

The box in the old house was smashed to bits
古い家にある箱はめちゃめちゃに壊されました。

Their house was demolished.
彼らの家は取り壊されました。

The table had already been moved.
テーブルはすでに動かされていました。


be(present) + pp = pp される。
be(past) + pp = pp された。
have + be + pp = pp されている。
had + be + pp = pp されていた。