Form VII often describes a change that happens to its subject: انكسر الكاس “the glass broke,” انفتح الباب “the door opened,” انقطع الخط “the line got cut off.” The affected entity occupies the subject position; no external agent has to be named.
This makes Form VII useful for inchoative and passive-like meanings, but it is not a colloquial copy of the English be + past participle passive. Many Form VII verbs are intransitive, resist a direct object, and sound unnatural with an English-style “by” phrase. The larger Forms VI–X map shows where the pattern fits.
A focused paradigm: انكسر / بينكسر
The strong-root citation pair is انكسر / بينكسر “break, become broken.” At the beginning of an isolated word, speakers can pronounce a helping vowel: inkasar. In connected speech, especially after a vowel, that vowel may be very short or absent. The written initial ا remains part of the conventional spelling.
| Person/environment | Form | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd masculine singular perfect | انكسر | inkasar | it/he broke |
| 3rd feminine singular perfect | انكسرت | inkasaret | it/she broke |
| 3rd masculine singular b-imperfect | بينكسر | byinkaser | it breaks / can break |
| 3rd feminine singular b-imperfect | بتنكسر | btinkaser | it/she breaks |
| 3rd plural b-imperfect | بينكسروا | byinkasro | they break |
| 3rd masculine singular bare imperfect | ينكسر | yinkaser | that it break |
انكسرت الكاسة بإيدي وأنا عم بغسلها.
inkasaret el-kēse bi-īde w-ana ʿam bghassela.
The glass broke in my hand while I was washing it. (informal; affected object as subject)
هالألعاب بينكسروا بسرعة إذا الولاد كبوهن.
hal-alʿāb byinkasro bi-sorʿa iza l-wlēd kabbohon.
These toys break quickly if the children throw them around. (informal; plural agreement in ordinary use)
Inchoative meaning: a state begins
An inchoative verb presents entry into a state. انفتح is not simply the adjective “open”; it reports the event of becoming open. انطفى “go out / switch off” and انقطع “be cut off” likewise focus the change.
فجأة انفتح الشباك من الهوا.
fazhʾa infataḥ esh-shobbēk min el-hawa.
The window suddenly opened because of the wind. (informal; spontaneous change with a cause phrase)
انقطع الخط بنص المكالمة.
inʾaṭaʿ el-khaṭṭ bi-noṣṣ el-mkēlame.
The line got cut off in the middle of the call. (informal; change without a named agent)
أول ما قطعت الكهربا، انطفى الكمبيوتر.
awwal ma ʾiṭʿet el-kahraba, inṭafa l-kombyūtar.
As soon as the power went out, the computer switched off. (informal; resulting change)
English can use the same word for an action and a change: “I opened the door” versus “the door opened.” Lebanese often makes the valency contrast overt with Form I versus Form VII: فتحت الباب versus انفتح الباب.
Passive-like meaning without an expressed agent
Some Form VII verbs describe an event normally caused by people while leaving those people unprofiled. انسرقت السيارة means “the car was/got stolen”; the theft is real, but the thief is absent from the clause.
انسرقت السيارة بالليل وما حدا شاف شي.
insaraʾet es-sayyāra bil-lēl w-ma ḥada shāf she.
The car was stolen at night, and nobody saw anything. (informal; passive-like Form VII)
انلغى الموعد قبل بساعة.
inlagha l-mawʿed ʾabel bi-sēʿa.
The appointment was canceled an hour beforehand. (neutral; event centered on the canceled appointment)
The second example contains an established passive-like verb common in Lebanese. Do not conclude that every transitive verb has an equally ordinary Form VII passive. Lexical gaps are normal.
Why a by-agent phrase usually fails
An English passive keeps the agent available: “The door was opened by Rami.” Form VII normally suppresses that role rather than holding a slot open for it. A من phrase can express a physical cause, as in انفتح من الهوا, but a deliberate human agent is usually clearer in an active clause.
رامي فتح الباب لأن الغرفة كانت سخنة.
Rāme fataḥ el-bēb laʾann el-ghorfe kēnit sekhne.
Rami opened the door because the room was hot. (informal; active clause because the agent matters)
الباب انفتح من الهوا، مش من حدا.
el-bēb infataḥ min el-hawa, mish min ḥada.
The door opened because of the wind, not because of anyone. (informal; cause, not an English by-agent)
For an institutional passive, تمّ + verbal noun occurs (formal/administrative): تم توقيع العقد “the contract was signed.” Everyday speech often prefers an active clause with a known agent, a generic plural such as وقعوا العقد, or an attested middle/passive-like verb. See Passive Strategies.
Form VII verbs are normally intransitive
Because the affected participant becomes the subject, a typical Form VII verb does not then take another affected direct object. Compare the frames:
| Clause | Subject | Object | Perspective |
|---|---|---|---|
| الولد كسر الكاسة | الولد | الكاسة | caused action |
| الكاسة انكسرت | الكاسة | — | change affecting the glass |
| الهوا فتح الباب | الهوا | الباب | cause profiled as subject |
| الباب انفتح | الباب | — | opening event profiled |
This is a valency difference, not merely an alternative past-tense ending.
Aspect and negation stay Lebanese
The perfect presents a bounded change. The b-imperfect can describe a recurring event, disposition, or general property. عم + b-imperfect presents an unfolding event, while رح + bare imperfect projects one.
هاد الباب بينفتح بسهولة.
hād el-bēb byinfeteḥ bi-sohūle.
This door opens easily. (informal; general property in the b-imperfect)
هاد الباب ما بينفتح بسهولة.
hād el-bēb ma byinfeteḥ bi-sohūle.
This door doesn't open easily. (informal; negative b-imperfect)
إذا ضلت الكاسة عالحافة، رح تنكسر.
iza ḍallet el-kēse ʿal-ḥāffe, raḥ tinkaser.
If the glass stays on the edge, it'll break. (informal; future with bare Form VII)
A dialogue: who caused it?
مين كسر الكاسة؟
mīn kasar el-kēse?
Nour: Who broke the glass? (informal dialogue; Form I asks for the agent)
وقعت من إيدي وانكسرت، ما حدا كسرها عن قصد.
wiʾʿet min īde w-inkasaret, ma ḥada kasara ʿan ʾaṣed.
Maya: It fell from my hand and broke; nobody broke it on purpose. (informal dialogue; accidental change versus deliberate causation)
Common Mistakes
Adding a human by-agent to Form VII
❌ انفتح الشباك من الحارس قبل الاجتماع.
Incorrect for ‘the guard opened the window’ — Form VII does not normally host an English-style human by-agent.
✅ الحارس فتح الشباك قبل الاجتماع.
el-ḥāres fataḥ esh-shobbēk ʾabel el-izhtimēʿ.
The guard opened the window before the meeting.
Keeping the affected entity as an object
❌ الولد انكسر الكاسة.
Incorrect — انكسر is intransitive; use Form I when the child is the breaker.
✅ الولد كسر الكاسة.
el-walad kasar el-kēse.
The child broke the glass.
Making a Form VII passive for every English passive
❌ انكتب التقرير من رنا.
Unnatural as a calque of ‘the report was written by Rana’; profile Rana in an active clause.
✅ رنا كتبت التقرير.
Rana katabet et-taʾrīr.
Rana wrote the report.
Keeping b- after رح
❌ الكاسة رح بتنكسر.
Incorrect — رح selects the bare imperfect تنكسر.
✅ الكاسة رح تنكسر.
el-kēse raḥ tinkaser.
The glass will break.
Key Takeaways
Form VII places the affected or changing entity in subject position. It commonly expresses inchoative events and supplies several passive-like lexical verbs, but it is not a general English-style passive and normally cannot add a deliberate agent with “by.” Learn each attested pair, distinguish causes from agents, respect its usual intransitivity, and apply the ordinary Lebanese aspect system rather than formal Arabic endings.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Relationships among Forms VI through XB2 — Recognize the reciprocal, middle, color-state, and ist-prefix families of Lebanese verbs while respecting sound changes and lexical gaps.
- Passive and Agent-Suppressing StrategiesB1 — Choose among Lebanese middle verbs, result participles, generic plural subjects, impersonal clauses, and limited formal passives.
- Middle and Anticausative StrategiesC1 — Distinguish Lebanese change-of-state events, passive-like middles, and result states across Forms V, VII, VIII, and participles.
- Change-of-State and Unaccusative PredicatesB2 — Use Lebanese arrival, appearance, disappearance, and change-of-state verbs with natural subject order, agreement, and result-state contrasts.
- Derived Forms and Changes in ValencyC1 — See how Lebanese derived verbs add, suppress, or reorganize participants—and why every resulting frame must still be learned lexically.
- Form I as a Lexical BaseB1 — Learn Form I through perfect–nonpast principal parts, lexical vowel classes, real complement frames, and the contrast between events and states.