Passive in Arabic

Arabic has a passive voice, known as al-mabni lil-majhul (المبني للمجهول), which is used to emphasize the action itself or the object being acted upon rather than the doer of the action. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

Key Points:

• Focus: The focus shifts from the agent performing the action (subject in active voice) to the object being acted upon.
• Verb Conjugation: Unlike English, Arabic doesn’t use an auxiliary verb like “to be” in the passive voice. Instead, the verb itself is modified to indicate the passive form.
• Subject: The doer of the action (agent) might be omitted entirely, unimportant, or unknown. If it is important to mention the agent, a prepositional phrase with the preposition “by” (بِ – bi) is used after the passive verb.

Formation:

Passive verbs in Arabic are formed by adding a special vowel sound (damma: ُ ) to the first letter of the verb root and a specific vowel sound (fatha: َ ) to the second-to-last letter. The verb root also retains its original three consonants.

Example:

• Active Voice: يقرأ الكتاب (yaqraʼu al-kitāb) – “He reads the book” (He is the subject performing the action)
• Passive Voice: يُقرأ الكتاب ( يُقرأُ الكتاب – yuqraʾu al-kitāb) – “The book is read” (Focus is on the book being acted upon, the doer is unknown)

2-The passive voice in Arabic (الماضي المجهول). The passive voice is used to emphasize the action or the result of an action rather than the doer. Here are some key points:

1. Formation of Passive Verbs:
   • In Arabic, passive verbs are formed by changing the vowels within the root letters of the active voice verb.
   • Specifically, this alteration involves:
     • Replacing the fatha on the first root letter with a damma.
     • Replacing the kasra on the second root letter with a fatha.
2. Examples of Passive Verbs:
   • Let’s see some examples of passive verbs:
     • كُسِرَتْ الزُّجاجَةُ (The glass was broken)
     • كُتِبَ الدَّرْسُ (The lesson was written)
3. Consistent Transformation:
   • The change in the passive voice is consistent across all verbs.
   • It follows the pattern: فَعَلَ – فَعِلَ – فَعُلَ to فُعِلَ.
4. Transforming Active to Passive:
   • We will also study how to transform the past verb from the active voice to the passive voice.
     • For example:
       • Active: كَتَبَ الطَّالِبُ الدَّرْسَ (The student wrote the lesson)
       • Passive: كُتِبَ الدَّرْسُ (The lesson was written)

Additional Notes:

• Not all Arabic verbs have a corresponding passive form.
• The passive voice can also be used with some intransitive verbs (verbs that don’t take a direct object).
• Remember, using the passive voice effectively takes practice. Pay attention to how it’s used in Arabic texts and conversations, and try forming passive sentences from active ones to solidify your understanding.