I'm confused about the difference between the passive form and the てある form.
飲み物はもう買ってあります。
The drinks have already been bought.
飲み物はもう買われました。
The drinks were already bought.
Are my translations correct? Is it that verb-てある means 'verb has been done', whereas, verb-passive means 'verb was done'? Are there any other subtleties? Thanks.
Answer
Are my translations correct?
I could not say 'no', but as a Japanese-speaker, I do know that you basically would never hear one of us say 「飲{の}み物{もの}はもう買{か}われました。」 to mean anything. It certainly does not mean the same as 「飲み物はもう買ってあります」.
「飲み物はもう買ってあります」 is a 100% natural-sounding sentence so I do not have to think about what it could mean. It could only mean one thing: "I/We bought drinks some time ago for a specific purpose and they are still here waiting to be consumed."
With 「飲み物はもう買われました。」, however, one would have to think hard about what it could possibly mean as it is such a strange-sounding sentence to the native ear. It could mean something like "The drinks that I wanted to buy had already been bought by another person.", but to say that it would be more natural to use 「買われていました」 than to use 「買われました」.
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