Hindi personal passives reorganize a transitive clause around its patient: the patient becomes the unmarked agreement controller, while an expressed agent is oblique. Impersonal passives go further and present an event without an ordinary nominative controller, often producing default masculine singular agreement and meanings of inability, general practice, or deliberation. For formation across the paradigm, begin with the passive with जाना.
Both use forms related to जाना, but morphology alone is not enough. Alignment—who is unmarked, who bears a postposition, and what controls agreement—distinguishes a personal passive from an impersonal construction or a lexical compound verb.
From active to personal passive
Compare an active perfective with its passive counterpart:
संपादक ने अंतिम रिपोर्ट जाँची।
sampādak ne antim riporṭ jā̃cī.
The editor checked the final report.
अंतिम रिपोर्ट संपादक द्वारा जाँची गई।
antim riporṭ sampādak dvārā jā̃cī gaī.
The final report was checked by the editor. (formal)
In the active, संपादक ने is the ergative subject and unmarked feminine रिपोर्ट controls जाँची. In the passive, रिपोर्ट is the unmarked patient-subject and controls the entire feminine sequence जाँची गई. The optional agent is no longer a subject; formal संपादक द्वारा cannot control.
| Role | Active perfective | Personal passive |
|---|---|---|
| agent | ने-marked subject | omitted or से/के द्वारा phrase |
| patient | direct object | unmarked subject-like controller |
| predicate | perfective lexical verb | perfective participle + जाना |
The passive is useful when the result, procedure, or affected entity matters more than the actor. Hindi often prefers an active clause with an omitted subject when the agent remains discourse-central; passive is not an automatic translation of every English be + past participle.
Patient agreement is the primary diagnostic
Number and gender of an unmarked patient appear on both the lexical participle and passive जाना:
सभी आवेदन ध्यान से जाँचे गए।
sabhī āvedan dhyān se jā̃ce gae.
All the applications were checked carefully.
दोनों शिकायतें दर्ज की गईं।
donoṃ śikāyateṃ darj kī gaīṃ.
Both complaints were formally recorded.
The masculine plural आवेदन controls जाँचे गए. Feminine plural शिकायतें controls की गईं; the noun-plus-verb expression दर्ज करना realizes its passive as दर्ज किया जाना, with agreement visible on की गईं.
Aspect and tense sit outside the passive core
The passive core can appear in habitual, progressive, perfective, future, subjunctive, and infinitival frames:
यहाँ हर आवेदन दो बार जाँचा जाता है।
yahā̃ har āvedan do bār jā̃cā jātā hai.
Every application is checked twice here.
नए आवेदनों की अभी जाँच की जा रही है।
nae āvedanoṃ kī abhī jā̃c kī jā rahī hai.
The new applications are being reviewed now.
परिणाम कल घोषित किए जाएँगे।
pariṇām kal ghoṣit kie jāẽge.
The results will be announced tomorrow. (formal)
Habitual जाता है, progressive जा रही है, and future जाएँगे belong to the outer passive predicate. English places forms of be before a participle; Hindi keeps the layered predicate together at the end.
The passive infinitive is nonfinite until another element completes it:
सभी दस्तावेज़ आज ही जमा किए जाने हैं।
sabhī dastāvez āj hī jamā kie jāne haiṃ.
All documents must be submitted today. (formal)
Plural दस्तावेज़ controls किए जाने हैं. Bare जमा किए जाने would be a phrase, not this complete finite obligation statement.
A को-marked patient yields impersonal agreement
Animate, specific patients often retain को in the passive. Because a को phrase cannot control agreement, the predicate is masculine singular default:
सीमा को अगली बैठक में बुलाया गया।
sīmā ko aglī baiṭhak meṃ bulāyā gayā.
Seema was invited to the next meeting.
Feminine सीमा को does not trigger बुलाई गई in this structure. Compare an unmarked inanimate patient:
अगली बैठक सोमवार को बुलाई गई।
aglī baiṭhak somvār ko bulāī gaī.
The next meeting was called for Monday.
Unmarked feminine बैठक controls बुलाई गई. The identical lexical verb thus supports a controlled alignment contrast: marked human patient produces default; unmarked inanimate patient produces feminine agreement.
This को passive is sometimes called impersonal because no unmarked nominative controller is available, though it still contains a semantic patient. It differs from the ability-like patterns discussed below, where the lexical event may or may not supply an eligible controller.
Agent phrases remain oblique
Formal administrative and academic prose favors के द्वारा/द्वारा for an explicit agent:
प्रस्ताव स्वतंत्र समिति द्वारा तैयार किया गया।
prastāv svatantr samiti dvārā taiyār kiyā gayā.
The proposal was prepared by an independent committee. (formal)
Instrumental or causal से can introduce an agent in appropriate passives, but it is often ambiguous with means or cause. Natural Hindi commonly omits a predictable agent instead of forcing an English-style by-phrase.
The passive agent never takes ने:
रास्ता भारी बारिश से बंद कर दिया गया।
rāstā bhārī bāriś se band kar diyā gayā.
The road was closed because of the heavy rain.
Here से is naturally causal rather than an intentional agent. This use illustrates that से has several functions across passive clauses, so semantic role and postposition must be interpreted together.
Ability-like passive and controllerless alignment
Hindi also uses participle + जाना in ability-like constructions. A से-marked experiencer may express the person unable to perform the event. Some clauses retain an eligible unmarked object, while genuinely controllerless intransitive clauses show default agreement:
कमज़ोरी के कारण मुझसे सीढ़ियाँ चढ़ी नहीं जातीं।
kamzorī ke kāraṇ mujhse sīṛhiyā̃ caṛhī nahīṃ jātīṃ.
Because of weakness, I cannot manage to climb stairs.
Here सीढ़ियाँ is an overt unmarked goal/theme and triggers feminine plural चढ़ी जातीं. The construction is ability-like, but it is not patientless. Remove any eligible nominal and default masculine singular emerges:
कमज़ोरी के कारण मुझसे तेज़ चला नहीं जाता।
kamzorī ke kāraṇ mujhse tez calā nahīṃ jātā.
Because of weakness, I cannot manage to walk fast.
Oblique मुझसे cannot control, and intransitive चलना supplies no patient, so चला नहीं जाता is default. The construction presents inability or lack of control more experientially than neutral मैं तेज़ नहीं चल सकता/सकती.
Agentless deliberative passive
An agentless deliberative passive can make a proposal or general prescription while retaining a patient that controls agreement:
अब इस मुद्दे पर खुलकर बात की जाए।
ab is mudde par khulkar bāt kī jāe.
Let this issue now be discussed openly. (formal/deliberative)
The actor is intentionally left unspecified, but feminine बात controls की जाए. This is therefore an agentless personal passive rather than a controllerless impersonal, even though the English translation may sound impersonal.
Negation and focus preserve alignment
Negation changes the polarity of the passive event but not its controller:
महत्वपूर्ण फ़ाइलें अभी तक नहीं भेजी गईं।
mahatvapūrṇ fāileṃ abhī tak nahīṃ bhejī gaīṃ.
The important files have not been sent yet.
Feminine plural फ़ाइलें continues to control भेजी गईं. Focus also attaches to a constituent without promoting it:
सिर्फ़ अंतिम अध्याय को संशोधित किया गया, भूमिका को नहीं।
sirf antim adhyāy ko saṃśodhit kiyā gayā, bhūmikā ko nahīṃ.
Only the final chapter was revised, not the introduction. (formal)
Both contrasted patients bear को, so the overt passive remains default किया गया. Focus does not cancel case marking.
Clause boundaries contain passive agreement
Matrix and embedded clauses choose voice and agreement independently:
अधिकारियों ने बताया कि सभी सड़कें खोल दी गई हैं।
adhikāriyoṃ ne batāyā ki sabhī saṛkeṃ khol dī gaī haiṃ.
The officials reported that all the roads have been reopened.
Matrix active अधिकारियों ने बताया is default before a finite content clause. Inside the कि-clause, feminine plural सड़कें controls passive खोल दी गई हैं. Neither matrix plurality nor embedded patient agreement crosses the complementizer.
जाना is not always passive
Hindi also uses जाना as an ordinary motion verb and as a vector in compound predicates such as सो जाना “fall asleep” or पहुँच जाना “manage/reach completely.” An intransitive subject remains the controller there:
बच्ची सो गई।
baccī so gaī.
The girl fell asleep.
There is no active transitive counterpart with बच्ची as patient, no suppressed agent, and no passive alignment. Treating every participle plus गया/गई as passive would misparse a major part of Hindi aspect.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping ने on the passive agent
❌ रिपोर्ट संपादक ने जाँची गई।
Incorrect — a passive agent cannot remain a ने-marked subject.
✅ रिपोर्ट संपादक द्वारा ध्यान से जाँची गई।
riporṭ sampādak dvārā dhyān se jā̃cī gaī.
The report was checked carefully by the editor. (formal)
2. Agreeing with a को-marked patient
❌ नंदिता को सम्मेलन में बुलाई गई।
Incorrect in the को-passive — नंदिता को cannot control, so use default बुलाया गया.
✅ नंदिता को वार्षिक सम्मेलन में बुलाया गया।
nanditā ko vārṣik sammelan meṃ bulāyā gayā.
Nandita was invited to the annual conference.
3. Copying English passive auxiliary order
❌ आवेदन हैं जाँचे जा रहे।
Incorrect neutral order — the Hindi passive-progressive complex stays clause-final.
✅ सभी आवेदन अभी जाँचे जा रहे हैं।
sabhī āvedan abhī jā̃ce jā rahe haiṃ.
All applications are being checked now.
4. Treating completive जाना as passive
❌ बच्ची किसी के द्वारा सो गई।
Incorrect for ordinary ‘fell asleep’ — सो गई is an intransitive compound predicate, not a passive.
✅ बच्ची कहानी सुनते-सुनते सो गई।
baccī kahānī sunte-sunte so gaī.
The girl fell asleep while listening to the story.
Key Takeaways
- A personal passive promotes an unmarked patient, which controls agreement; an expressed agent is oblique.
- Passive aspect and tense are built outside the participle-plus-जाना core and remain predicate-final.
- A को-marked patient cannot control and commonly yields default masculine singular passive morphology.
- Ability-like constructions agree with an eligible unmarked object when one is present; genuinely controllerless impersonal clauses use default agreement.
- Lexical/vector जाना must be distinguished from passive जाना through argument structure, not surface form alone.
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- Passive voice with जानाB1 — Build Hindi passives from a perfective participle plus जाना, with the patient controlling agreement and the outer verb carrying tense, aspect, and mood.
- Passive agreementB1 — Identify the agreement controller in Hindi passives, including feminine and plural patients, को-marked patients, and expressed agents.
- Impersonal passiveC1 — Understand Hindi impersonal passives with default masculine singular agreement, से-marked experiencers, inability readings, and deliberative uses.
- Ability-like passive negativesC2 — Use से-marked experiencers with negative passive predicates to express that someone cannot manage, tolerate, or bring themselves to perform an action.
- Passive versus active with omitted agentC1 — Choose between a Hindi passive and an active clause whose understood subject is generic, recoverable, or deliberately unspoken.
- Default masculine singular agreementA2 — Recognize masculine singular as Hindi’s fallback agreement when case marking or clause type leaves the predicate without an eligible controller.