Impersonal Passive and Clause Complements | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

Formal Modern Standard Arabic frequently opens a report, notice, or cautious claim with a third-person singular passive such as قيل إنّ “it was said that,” يُعتقد أنّ “it is believed that,” or يُرجى أنْ “it is requested/hoped that.” These expressions are often called impersonal passives because no ordinary noun phrase appears as an overt نائب فاعل after the passive verb. Instead, a whole clause supplies the reported proposition or requested event.

English inserts dummy it in “it is said that,” but Arabic inserts no referential هو. The passive verb itself carries third-person singular morphology. The embedded clause then has its own governor, subjects, case, mood, and agreement. Keeping those two grammatical layers separate is the central skill on this page.

The ordinary noun-phrase promotion pattern is reviewed on The نائب الفاعل; impersonal constructions differ precisely because no overt noun phrase fills that role.

قيل إنّ: reporting a proposition

قِيلَ is the perfect internal passive of قال “say.” In the institutional pattern قيل إنّ..., the speaker is omitted and the following إنّ clause gives the content. Traditional analyses differ in terminology: some treat the content clause as filling the functional space associated with the passive verb, while others call the construction impersonal and say that no overt نائب فاعل is present. For sentence building, the safe conclusion is the same: do not promote the first noun inside the إنّ clause into the matrix passive clause.

قيل إن المشروع سيبدأ في الربيع.

qīla ʾinna l-mashrūʿa sa-yabdaʾu fī r-rabīʿ.

It was said that the project would begin in the spring. (Formal report; no dummy pronoun.)

Fully parsed, قيل is a masculine singular perfect passive reporting predicate. إنّ begins a new clause and assigns accusative to المشروعَ, its noun. The imperfect سيبدأُ is the predicate of that embedded clause and agrees with المشروع. Neither إنّ nor المشروعَ is the agent of “saying.”

قال المتحدث إن المشروع سيبدأ في الربيع.

qāla l-mutaḥaddithu ʾinna l-mashrūʿa sa-yabdaʾu fī r-rabīʿ.

The spokesperson said that the project would begin in the spring. (Active paraphrase naming the source.)

The active sentence is preferable when responsibility or evidential source matters. قيل إنّ deliberately backgrounds that source and can sound cautious, distancing, or hearsay-like (formal). It should not replace attribution in journalism when the source is known and relevant.

قيل إن النتائج غير حاسمة، لكن التقرير المنشور لم يذكر هذا الاستنتاج.

qīla ʾinna n-natāʾija ghayru ḥāsimatin, lākinna t-taqrīra l-manshūra lam yadhkur hādhā l-istintāj.

It was said that the results were inconclusive, but the published report did not mention that conclusion. (Formal; the passive distances the writer from the claim.)

Inside the first embedded clause, النتائجَ is accusative after إنّ. Its nonhuman plural meaning controls feminine-singular حاسمة, while the predicate phrase غيرُ حاسمةٍ is nominative as a whole. The nearby plural meaning does not turn the matrix verb قيل into a plural form.

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Draw a boundary after the reporting passive: قيل | إنّ النتائجَ.... The verb on the left has no overt noun-phrase نائب فاعل; the case and agreement on the right belong to the embedded clause.

يُرجى أنْ: an institutional request or hope

يُرْجَى is the imperfect passive of final-weak رَجَا / يَرْجُو “hope; request.” In notices, forms, and official correspondence, يُرجى أنْ + subjunctive conventionally means “please / it is requested that” (formal/institutional). The form remains third-person masculine singular even when the people expected to act are plural.

يرجى أن يرسل المشاركون ملخصاتهم قبل نهاية الشهر.

yurjā ʾan yursila l-mushārikūna mulakhkhaṣātihim qabla nihāyati sh-shahr.

Participants are requested to send their abstracts before the end of the month. (Formal institutional notice.)

أنْ governs subjunctive يرسلَ. Because the overt human plural subject follows its verb, formal VSO uses singular يرسلَ; the subject itself remains nominative المشاركونَ. English promotes “participants” into the subject of are requested, but Arabic does not: they are the subject of the embedded sending event.

نرجو من المشاركين إرسال ملخصاتهم قبل نهاية الشهر.

narjū mina l-mushārikīna ʾirsāla mulakhkhaṣātihim qabla nihāyati sh-shahr.

We ask participants to send their abstracts before the end of the month. (Plainer active institutional paraphrase.)

The active نرجو من... names the institution through “we” and can sound more direct and reader-friendly. يُرجى is useful when the institution presents the instruction impersonally, but repeated impersonal formulas can make public-facing prose remote. Neither option is automatically more polite in every context.

When the intended actor is expressed with من, that phrase remains prepositional; it is not the passive agent and does not control يُرجى.

يرجى من الزائرات إبراز بطاقاتهن عند المدخل.

yurjā mina z-zāʾirāti ʾibrāzu biṭāqātihinna ʿinda l-madkhal.

Female visitors are requested to show their cards at the entrance. (Formal notice; a maṣdar follows يرجى.)

Here من الزائرات identifies those addressed. The nominative verbal noun إبرازُ supplies the requested action in a nominal formulation and can be analyzed as an overt nominal نائب فاعل; it therefore contrasts with the clause-complement construction that gives this page its “impersonal” label. Contemporary notices also use يُرجى من الزائرات أن يبرزن..., where the action appears in an أنْ clause. For maximal syntactic transparency, a direct imperative or active request may be better.

Other report-like passives

Contemporary formal prose uses several passive reporting predicates: يُعتقد أنّ “it is believed that,” يُتوقع أنْ “it is expected that,” يُلاحظ أنّ “it is observed that,” and perfect لوحظ أنّ “it was observed that.” Their complements are lexical: heavy أنّ presents a proposition; light أنْ introduces a projected or eventive subjunctive complement.

يعتقد أن التعديل سيخفض تكاليف التشغيل.

yuʿtaqadu ʾanna t-taʿdīla sa-yukhaffiḍu takālīfa t-tashghīl.

It is believed that the amendment will reduce operating costs. (Formal/academic hedging.)

يتوقع أن تنخفض التكاليف بعد تطبيق التعديل.

yutawaqqaʿu ʾan tankhafiḍa t-takālīfu baʿda taṭbīqi t-taʿdīl.

Costs are expected to fall after the amendment is implemented. (Formal forecast.)

The first has heavy أنّ plus accusative التعديلَ; the embedded future verb is indicative. The second has light أنْ, which makes تنخفضَ subjunctive. Nonhuman plural التكاليفُ controls feminine-singular تنخفض. Do not choose between أنّ and أنْ by English that/to alone; choose the complement structure selected by the Arabic predicate and the kind of content.

لاحظ الباحثون أن الاستجابة أصبحت أبطأ بعد التحديث.

lāḥaẓa l-bāḥithūna ʾanna l-istijābata ʾaṣbaḥat ʾabṭaʾa baʿda t-taḥdīth.

The researchers observed that the response became slower after the update. (Active, source explicit.)

لوحظ أن الاستجابة أصبحت أبطأ بعد التحديث.

lūḥiẓa ʾanna l-istijābata ʾaṣbaḥat ʾabṭaʾa baʿda t-taḥdīth.

It was observed that the response became slower after the update. (Impersonal passive; observer suppressed.)

In both versions, أبطأَ is the accusative predicate of أصبحت inside the embedded clause. Changing the matrix voice does not change that internal government.

Contrast with an ordinary passive subject

Not every passive followed by a noun or verbal noun is impersonal. In مُنع الدخولُ, the nominative verbal noun الدخولُ is an overt نائب فاعل: “entry was prohibited.” In أُعلنت النتائجُ, النتائجُ is the promoted argument and controls feminine-singular agreement.

منع الدخول إلى المختبر حتى انتهاء الفحص.

muniʿa d-dukhūlu ʾilā l-mukhtabari ḥattā ntihāʾi l-faḥṣ.

Entry to the laboratory was prohibited until the inspection ended. (Ordinary passive with overt الدخولُ as نائب الفاعل.)

أعلنت النتائج النهائية في مؤتمر صحفي.

ʾuʿlinati n-natāʾiju n-nihāʾiyyatu fī muʾtamarin ṣaḥafiyy.

The final results were announced at a press conference. (Ordinary passive; a nonhuman plural نائب الفاعل.)

By contrast, قيل إنّ النتائج... places النتائج inside a clause headed by إنّ, where it is accusative. The surface position after a passive verb is not enough to identify its role.

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If a passive is followed directly by a nominative noun phrase, test it as نائب الفاعل. If a complementizer such as إنّ، أنّ، أنْ opens a new clause, parse that clause internally before assigning any matrix role.

Scope, evidence, and institutional style

An impersonal passive can scope over an entire proposition: يُعتقد [أنّ...]. Material inside the brackets does not become the writer’s direct assertion in quite the same way; the reporting predicate marks an evidential stance. In academic prose, this may responsibly signal a consensus or inference (academic). Without evidence or attribution, it may instead obscure who believes or observed the claim.

يرجح في الدراسات الحديثة أن العاملين تفاعلا، لكن البيانات لا تثبت علاقة سببية.

yurajjaḥu fī d-dirāsāti l-ḥadīthati ʾanna l-ʿāmilayni tafāʿalā, lākinna l-bayānāti lā tuthbitu ʿalāqatan sababiyya.

Recent studies consider it likely that the two factors interacted, but the data do not establish a causal relationship. (Academic caution.)

The dual العاملينِ is accusative as اسم أنّ, while تفاعلا carries dual agreement inside its clause. Matrix يُرجّح stays masculine singular. A contemporary writer can often improve clarity by naming the studies, institution, or analysts rather than accumulating anonymous passives.

Common Mistakes

Adding an English-style dummy pronoun

❌ هو قيل إن الاجتماع ألغي.

Incorrect—Arabic does not require referential هو for English dummy ‘it’ in this passive construction.

✅ قيل إن الاجتماع ألغي بسبب الأحوال الجوية.

qīla ʾinna l-ijtimāʿa ʾulghiya bisababi l-ʾaḥwāli l-jawwiyya.

It was said that the meeting was canceled because of the weather.

Making the matrix passive agree with an embedded plural

❌ قيلوا إن الموظفين سيعودون غدا.

Incorrect—the reporting passive remains singular قيل; الموظفين belongs inside the إنّ clause.

✅ قيل إن الموظفين سيعودون إلى مكاتبهم غدا.

qīla ʾinna l-muwaẓẓafīna sa-yaʿūdūna ʾilā makātibihim ghadan.

It was said that the employees would return to their offices tomorrow.

Missing the subjunctive after أنْ

❌ يرجى أن يرسلون المتقدمون الوثائق اليوم.

Incorrect—أنْ governs the subjunctive, and the five-verb form must lose its nūn: يرسلوا; clearer order is أن يرسل المتقدمون in VSO.

✅ يرجى أن يرسل المتقدمون الوثائق المطلوبة اليوم.

yurjā ʾan yursila l-mutaqaddimūna l-wathāʾiqa l-maṭlūbata l-yawm.

Applicants are requested to send the required documents today.

Merging matrix and embedded governors

❌ لوحظ أن الاستجابة أبطأ، ولذلك أبطأ مرفوعة لأنها بعد أن.

Incorrect analysis—heavy أنّ governs الاستجابةَ; أصبحت, when present, separately governs its accusative predicate أبطأَ.

✅ لوحظ أن الاستجابة أصبحت أبطأ في ساعات الذروة.

lūḥiẓa ʾanna l-istijābata ʾaṣbaḥat ʾabṭaʾa fī sāʿāti dh-dhirwa.

It was observed that the response became slower during peak hours.

Using anonymous passive style where attribution is essential

❌ يعتقد أن العلاج فعال، من غير ذكر دراسة أو جهة.

Weak academic practice—not grammatically impossible, but an anonymous passive should not replace evidence or attribution for a consequential claim.

✅ تشير نتائج التجربة المسجلة إلى أن العلاج قد يكون فعالا لهذه الفئة.

tushīru natāʾiju t-tajribati l-musajjalati ʾilā ʾanna l-ʿilāja qad yakūnu faʿʿālan lihādhihi l-fiʾa.

The registered trial results indicate that the treatment may be effective for this group. (Academic; evidence source explicit.)

Key Takeaways

Report-like قيل إنّ، يُعتقد أنّ، لوحظ أنّ can be analyzed as impersonal passives without an overt noun-phrase نائب فاعل.
يُرجى أنْ is a fixed institutional strategy; أنْ governs the embedded subjunctive, not the matrix passive.
Heavy أنّ/إنّ and light أنْ establish different internal case and mood patterns.
Embedded nouns do not control the matrix reporting verb. Each clause calculates its own agreement.
Impersonal style can background a source appropriately, but active attribution is clearer when responsibility or evidence matters.

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