Active and Passive Voice in Arabic I am having quite a difficult time distinguishing active and passive verbs in Arabic. I know that some verbs are passive by nature, or when verbs are used in certain

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Active and Passive Voice in Arabic I am having quite a difficult time distinguishing active and passive verbs in Arabic. I know that some verbs are passive by nature, or when verbs are used in certain "bab"s they gain a passive meaning; so, this is not exactly my problem. Is this normal? How does native Arabic speakers feel about it when they read a text? Because, seems to me, you have to see the whole sentence to eventually decide if it is passive or active, so when you're reading and in the beginning or middle of the sentence, you don't know that. Unless there are diacritics (حركات), of course, then it's easier. For example, here's a sentence: وهدمت الحركة غائصة في الصمت والشجن I don't know if I am expressing myself clear enough right now about it, though, I will appreciate a nice discussion here. Has any other learner had the same problem? What are the solutions, suggestions, if any?... And, please, let's not be bound by the sample sentence above only. Thanks in advance...

Oct 15, 2014 8:28 PM

Answers · 7

Salam, As you can already know, the only way to correctly read a text in Arabic, without diacritics, is to try to, somehow, read whole sentences instead of isolated words. Maybe this sounds difficult for a beginner, but it is almost second nature to a native Arabic speaker. The same thing goes for guessing passive voice from active voice. However, diacritics should be used in case there may be confusion, as in the case of passive/active voice. There are also verbs whose passive form change (verbs that have a "long vowel"). e.g: "قــال " becomes " قــيــل " in passive voice. I think as you get more familiar with reading Arabic you will be able to distinguish both forms.

October 15, 2014

المبني للمعلوم و المبني للمجهول المعلوم: ما ذكر معه فاعله: فَتَحَ محمدٌ البابَ ً. المجهول: ما حذف فاعله، وأنيب غيره: فُتِحَ البابُ. البناء للمجهول: إذا كان ماضياً كسر ما قبل آخره، وضُم كل متحرك قبله: عَلِمَ : عُلِمَ ، فَهِمَ : فُهِمَ. إذا كان مضارعاً فُتِح ما قبل آخره وضُمَّ أوله: يَكْتبُ : يُكْتَبُ ، يَسْتَعْمِلُ: يُسْتَعْمَلُ. إذا كان ما قبل آخر الماضي ألفاً قلبت ياء وكسر ما قبلها: باع: بِيعَ. إذا كان ما قبل آخر المضارع واواً أو ياء قلبت ألفاً: يَصومُ : يُصامُ :يبيعُ:يُبَاعُ . إذا كان الفعل يتعدى لمفعولين وبُني للمجهول يبقى المفعول الثاني على حاله: أُعطِيَ العاملُ مكافأة. لا يُبنى اللازم للمجهول إلا إذا كان نائب الفاعل مصدراً أو ظرفا أو جاراً ومجروراً: وُقِفَ أمامَ البابِ. فعل الأمر لا يُبنى للمجهول

October 15, 2014

I would go with what Idris said, it's something you pick up as you become more and more familiar with the language. You'll get better understanding of the language used from the whole context of the sentence, if not the paragraph. Be patient and look carefully for clues in the meaning. Good luck and have fun learning!

October 16, 2014

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