Lesson 33
Active and Passive Voice
المبني للمعلوم والمجهول
The passive voice is formed by changing the verb's internal vowel pattern. The agent (doer) is unknown or unmentioned; the patient (مَفْعُول) is promoted to subject and takes the nominative case as نَائِب الْفَاعِل.
Active → Passive Vowel Change
VoicePast patternPresent patternExample (write)
Activeفَعَلَيَفْعُلكَتَبَ / يَكْتُب
Passiveفُعِلَيُفْعَلكُتِبَ / يُكْتَب
Passive Examples Across Common Verbs
Active (past)Passive (past)Active (present)Passive (present)
كَتَبَكُتِبَيَكْتُبُيُكْتَبُ
قَرَأَقُرِئَيَقْرَأُيُقْرَأُ
فَتَحَفُتِحَيَفْتَحُيُفْتَحُ
أَرْسَلَأُرْسِلَيُرْسِلُيُرْسَلُ
كَتَبَ الطَّالِبُ الدَّرْسَ (مَعْلُوم) كُتِبَ الدَّرْسُ (مَجْهُول)
Kataba ṭ-ṭālibu d-darsa (active) Kutiba d-darsu (passive)
The student wrote the lesson. The lesson was written. (naib al-faʿil: الدَّرْسُ in nominative)
فُتِحَتِ الْأَبْوَابُ يُرْسَلُ الرَّسُولُ بِالْحَقِّ
Futiḥati l-abwābu Yursalu r-rasūlu bi-l-ḥaqq
The doors were opened. The messenger is sent with the truth.
- Passive rule: ḍamma on first root letter, kasra on second كُتِبَ (past); ḍamma on prefix, fatḥa on penultimate يُكْتَب (present).
- نَائِب الْفَاعِل (substitute agent) takes nominative it is the promoted object from the active sentence.
- The passive is extremely common in formal Arabic, news, academic writing, and the Quran.
- Hollow verbs in passive change vowel: قَالَ (active) → قِيلَ (passive past); يَقُولُ → يُقَالُ.
- The agent cannot be stated in a passive sentence in Arabic unlike English "was written by the student", Arabic simply uses كُتِبَ.