Understanding and using the passive voice convincingly will enhance your writing in light of making the balance you sometimes require achieve from sentence to sentence.
It is important to recognize and effect change in passive voice structures during communication to prevent misconceptions. This is either in Arabic or English.
In Arabic, there are forms, verbal forms, and other changes in certain types of patterns for the sake of passivization, while in English, there are no specific changes; rather, auxiliary identification and the past participle are required.
These techniques enable you to make your sentences more readable and powerful.
This user-friendly guide explains and corrects your passive voice between English and Arabic for your style of writing.
How to build the passive voice in Arabic easily
It is quite simple to build up in Arabic. To form a passive voice sentence in Arabic, the following steps are taken. Here are a few simplified steps to form the passive voice
- Establish the Active Sentence: Establish the sentence you will change into a passive voice.
For example, an active sentence would be:
المدرس يشرح الدرس
(The teacher explains the lesson).
- Isolate Verb Root: Locate the verb root in the active sentence. In “يشرح” the root is “شرح”.
- Make Passive Form: The proper passive form of the verb. In Arabic, the passive form of the verb is constructed by changing the verb pattern.
For most triliteral verbs you use the pattern: Verb Pattern: “مُفْعَل” (for past tense) or for present: “يُفْعل
For “يشرح” the passive form is “يُشْرَح”
- Substitute in the passive sentence: replace the original subject with the object of the active sentence, and use the passive verb form. In other words: the object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence
Passive: الدرس يُشْرَح
- Adaptation for the given context: when needed add or modify other parts to suit the context, for example:
Active: “كتب الكاتب رسالة” (The writer wrote a letter).
Passive: “كتبت رسالة من قبل الكاتب” (A letter was written by the writer).
Example in Detail
Active Sentence: “الطبيب يعالج المرض.
The passive voice in Arabic is more common in formal or written language. In everyday speech, the active voice is used more often.
Patterns that can be helpful for Passive Forms may also be different due to the verb’s root and the tense used.
How do you easily spot passive voice?
Passive voice is easy to spot as long as you are familiar with what it entails. These include:
1. Form of the Verb
In general, the passive voice uses a form of ‘to be’ (‘is, was, were’), along with the main verb’s past participle. For example, ‘the cake was eaten by the children.’
2. The subject of the action
In passive voice the focus is on the action and who it occurred but not the one who did it.
The sentence can’t be read in subject-verb-object; it doesn’t show the doer (agent) or the doer can be added in the sentence after “by.”
For example, “The book was read (by many people).” The focus here is on the book being read not on some people who read.
3. Locate the Agent (if there is one):
If the doer of the action will be included, it comes after the word “by”.
Example: “The choir sang the song.”
4. Structure of Passive Voice
The usual structure is that: [Recipient of Action] + [Form of “to be ] + [Past Participle of Main Verb]
Example: “The project is being done.”
- Comparison of Passive and Active
Try changing the sentence to active voice to see if it changes the sentence. Such as changing, “The letter was written by John”.
Examples: Active: “The chef cooked the meal.” Passive: “The meal was cooked by the chef.” or
Active: “The teacher explains the lesson.” Passive: “The lesson is explained by the teacher.”
By acquainting yourself with these traits, you will identify passive voice more readily.
What’s the Simplest Way to Correct the Passive Voice?
The simplest way to correct the passive voice is to convert a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence.
Often, you can transform a passive voice sentence so that the statement becomes clearer and more direct.
Here is a general way to convert passive voice sentences to active voice sentences:
1. Identify Passive Voice Sentence:
Find the Passive: [Receiver of Action] + [Form of “to be”] + [Past Participle of Main Verb].
For instance: “The letter was written by Mary.”
2. Find the Subject, Verb, and Object :
Who is receiving the action?; What is the action?; Who is doing the action?
Identify the Recipient:
- “The letter was written by Mary”;
- The recipient here is “the letter.”;
- The verb is “was written”;
- The agent is “Mary”;
3. Rewrite the Sentence in Active Voice
Place the agent (the doer) as the new subject, followed by the action (verb), and then the recipient of the action (object).
For “The letter was written by Mary”, the active voice would be: “Mary wrote the letter.”
Steps in Detail
- Identify the form of the passive:
“The cake was baked by the chef.” The passive form is: [The cake] (recipient) + [was baked] (verb) + [by the chef] (agent).
- Identify the agent:
“The chef” is the agent.
- Write the sentence in the active voice:
Identify the position indicator and recast the sentence to find the new subject which is the agent: “The chef.”
- Change the verb into the active voice: “baked.”
- Write the recipient: “the cake.”
- Active: “The chef baked the cake.”
Exercises:
The book was read to the students.
Active: The students read the book.
The company announced a new policy.
Active: The company announced a new policy.
Changing from passive to active usage changes the construction and therefore injects liveliness and direct engagement into the statement.
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