The Internal Passive: Overview

Modern Standard Arabic has an internal passive: it can change the voice of a finite verb by changing the verb's vowel melody, without adding a word corresponding to English be. Active كَتَبَ kataba “he wrote” becomes passive كُتِبَ kutiba “it was written”; active يَكْتُبُ yaktubu becomes passive يُكْتَبُ yuktabu “it is/is being written.” The consonants and person endings still identify one lexeme and its agreement, while the internal vowels identify active versus passive voice.

This page explains the system: what happens to the agent, the promoted argument, agreement, and discourse use. The exact perfect and imperfect pattern inventories receive separate treatment on the perfect passive and later pages.

Voice is not tense

Arabic voice and Arabic aspect are independent choices. The perfect normally presents an event as completed; the imperfect presents it as ongoing, habitual, projected, or otherwise incomplete. Either can be active or passive.

English expresses the passive with an auxiliary plus a participle—was written, is written, will be written. Arabic's finite internal passive remains one conjugated verb. Do not insert كان simply because English contains was: كُتب التقرير already means “the report was written.” كان التقرير قد كُتب adds a separate past reference point, approximately “the report had already been written.”

The agent disappears from the core clause

In an active clause, الموظفُ is the doer and التقريرَ is the accusative direct object. In the internal passive, the doer is not expressed as the grammatical subject. The former object التقريرُ is promoted to the nominative role traditionally called نائب الفاعل “deputy of the agent.” It controls agreement and no longer bears accusative case.

Arabic grammar's term المبني للمجهول literally suggests “built for the unknown,” but an unknown agent is only one reason for the passive. The writer may know the responsible party and suppress it because the result matters more, because the agent is obvious, because responsibility is strategically backgrounded, or because an institutional procedure is being described.

In idiomatic formal MSA, the internal passive normally earns its place by leaving the agent outside the clause. Constructions translating English by require care and belong to the dedicated page on expressing agents; mechanically appending من قبل to every passive produces bureaucratic translationese.

The vowel melody carries grammatical information

Unvocalized كتب can represent active كَتَبَ kataba or passive كُتِبَ kutiba. Context often resolves the reading, but learners must know the vocalized stem because pronunciation and syntax differ. In the perfect of a sound Form I verb, the model is فُعِلَ. In the imperfect it is يُفْعَلُ.

The same principle applies to derived forms: the passive remodels the vowels while preserving the lexical consonants, derivational material, and agreement ending. For example, Form IV active أَعْلَنَ — يُعْلِنُ “announce” has passive أُعْلِنَ — يُعْلَنُ “be announced”; Form II active نَظَّمَ — يُنَظِّمُ “organize” has passive نُظِّمَ — يُنَظَّمُ “be organized.”

The prefix سـ marks future time but does not create the passive. The passive is already present in يُعْلَنُ. Likewise, particles such as لن and لم govern the passive imperfect just as they govern the active imperfect: voice does not cancel mood.

Agreement follows the promoted argument

The promoted argument has subject-like agreement behavior. In neutral verb-first order, a preceding verb is normally singular even when a following human subject is dual or plural; it still agrees in gender where formal syntax requires it. In subject-first order, a human dual or plural normally triggers full number and gender agreement.

Nonhuman plurals conventionally take feminine singular agreement in formal MSA, in either order. That is why النتائج above selects أُعلنت, not a feminine-plural verb. Human feminine plurals behave differently: subject-first الطالبات كُرِّمْنَ has full feminine-plural agreement.

Why formal MSA uses the passive

The internal passive is especially common in news reports, academic writing, regulations, technical procedures, and administrative prose. It lets the writer make the event or result the point of departure: نُشرت الدراسة “the study was published,” تُحفظ البيانات “the data are stored,” سيُبتّ في الطلب “a decision will be made on the application.”

This does not mean every English passive should remain passive in Arabic. MSA also prefers an active verb with an institutional subject, a verbal noun, an impersonal expression such as يجب, or a middle/reflexive derived form where the lexicon supports it. Choose the internal passive when suppressing the agent genuinely serves the information structure.

Common Mistakes

Adding كان just because English says “was”

Leaving the promoted argument accusative

Giving a preceding verb full plural agreement

Ignoring the mood governor

Treating a derived middle verb as a finite passive

Key Takeaways

• Arabic's internal passive changes the verb's vowel melody: كَتَبَ / كُتِبَ, يَكْتُبُ / يُكْتَبُ.
• Perfect versus imperfect expresses aspect; active versus passive expresses voice. English be is not an Arabic tense marker.
• The agent is suppressed, and the affected argument becomes nominative نائب الفاعل and controls agreement.
• Neutral verb-first order normally has a singular verb; subject-first human plurals show full agreement, while nonhuman plurals take feminine singular agreement.
• The internal passive is productive and important in formal MSA, especially when the event or result matters more than the agent.