Passive Verbs

Finally, the verbs are also divided into Active verbs (when the subject is shown) and passive verbs (when the subject is unknown).

Ex.  كــَــتــَــبَ الــطــَّــالـِــبُ الــدَّرْسَ  = The student wrote the lesson. (Active Voice /the subject is الطالبُ)

 كــُــتــِــبَ الــدَّرْسُ   = The lesson was written. (Passive Voice/ the subject is unknown)

How to form passive verbs

To form the passive, change the vowels (الحركات) on the tenses as mentioned below:

Passive of basic regular verbs

Past tense

The past tense of a basic regular verb (i.e. does not include a weak letter) is vowelized in the passive with a Damma on the first letter, followed by a Kasrah on the penultimate. This does not vary no matter what the vowels were originally on the active verb.

 In the perfect form, the verb is tri-consonantal  ثُلاثِي is weighed as فَعَلَ. For example, كَـتَبَ. Its faa (i.e. the first letter) must be assigned ضَمَّة Dammah, and the ain (i.e. the letter before last) must be assigned كَسْرَة kasrah. So it becomes كُتِبَ.

Present tense

To vowelize the verb in the passive present tense, the first letter must be assigned Dhama, and its penultimate letter must be assigned Fatha. For example, يَكْتُب, becomes يُكْتَب.

The table below shows different examples:

Passive of basic irregular verbs:

Irregular verbs in the passive follow the same basic vowelizing as regular verbs in the passive, with some variations shown below to fit in with the different patterns:

Past tense

• In ajwaf verbs the first letter must be assigned Kasrah, and the penultimate letter (i.e. the alif) must be changed to yaa ي.

صَام becomes صِيْمَ

بَاع becomes بِيْعَ

• In Naqis verbs ending with alif , put Damma on the first letter and put Kasrah on the penultimate letter and then change the alif to yaa ي.  For example رَعَى  becomes رُعِي .

Present tense

If the present verb is irregular (i.e. includes a weak letter as the penultimate letter), then note these rules:

• In hollow verbs its first letter should be assigned Damma, and it penultimate letter must be changed to an alif (ا). For example:
• يَصُوم becomes يُصَام
• يَبِيْع becomes يُبَاع and
• يَسِيْر becomes يُسَار.

• In Mithal verbs put Damma on the first letter and Fatha on the penultimate letter and return the weak letter to its origin: يَصِلُ becomes يُوصَلُ   ( the root verb is وَصَلَ).

• In Naqis verbs put Damma on the first letter and put fatha on the penultimate letter and change the final letter (و or ي) to alif  ى.
• So يحمي  becomes يُحمَى
• يَدعو  becomes يُدعَى.

The table below shows different examples: