Japanese - Ask questions thread

Basically if you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

To start it off. When an animate object (iru) dies, is it considered inanimate(aru)?

can someone explain passive form to me? I know how it's used, but I don't really understand what it does.

For instance, this sentence from this one site shows

ポリッジが誰かに食べられた！
he porridge was eaten by somebody!

However if I change 食べられた to 食べました then I don't see a difference. Someone care to dumb down what passive does for me?