An English sentence without a named agent often uses the passive: “Cards are checked at the entrance.” Hindi can use a passive too, but it can also leave the subject of an active verb unspoken when listeners recover “they,” “people,” “staff,” or a previously mentioned person. The choice is therefore not “agent mentioned versus agent absent”; it is a choice about clause structure and what the speaker makes prominent.
For the mechanical formation of जाना passives, see passive voice with जाना. This page asks the discourse question: should Hindi promote the patient, or simply omit an understood active actor?
Two ways to background the actor
Compare a generic active plural with a passive:
यहाँ प्रवेश से पहले पहचान-पत्र देखते हैं।
yahā̃ praveś se pahle pahcān-patr dekhte haiṃ.
Here they check identification before entry.
यहाँ प्रवेश से पहले पहचान-पत्र देखा जाता है।
yahā̃ praveś se pahle pahcān-patr dekhā jātā hai.
Identification is checked here before entry.
The first predicate देखते हैं is active. Its unspoken subject is a generic plural—roughly “they/the staff/people”—and that subject controls masculine plural agreement. पहचान-पत्र remains its object. The second predicate देखा जाता है is passive: पहचान-पत्र is the unmarked patient and controls masculine singular agreement.
A compact agreement comparison
With a generic human actor omitted, the active habitual is commonly masculine plural लिखते हैं regardless of the object's gender and number. In the passive, the unmarked patient controls agreement.
| Patient | Active, generic actor omitted | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| पत्र (m.sg.) | पत्र लिखते हैं | पत्र लिखा जाता है |
| चिट्ठी (f.sg.) | चिट्ठी लिखते हैं | चिट्ठी लिखी जाती है |
| पत्र (m.pl.) | पत्र लिखते हैं | पत्र लिखे जाते हैं |
| चिट्ठियाँ (f.pl.) | चिट्ठियाँ लिखते हैं | चिट्ठियाँ लिखी जाती हैं |
The active column needs context that supplies a generic actor; it is not a four-way object-agreement paradigm. The passive column visibly distinguishes all four patient configurations, though feminine -ī has the same shape in singular and plural and number is completed by है/हैं.
इस दफ़्तर में सारी शिकायतें ध्यान से पढ़ते हैं।
is daftar meṃ sārī śikāyateṃ dhyān se paṛhte haiṃ.
At this office, they read every complaint carefully.
इस दफ़्तर में सारी शिकायतें ध्यान से पढ़ी जाती हैं।
is daftar meṃ sārī śikāyateṃ dhyān se paṛhī jātī haiṃ.
At this office, every complaint is read carefully.
The active version sounds more conversational and evokes the staff as human actors even though they are unspoken. The passive version organizes the clause around the complaints and suits a procedural description.
Generic people: active plural is often the natural choice
Hindi readily uses an unexpressed third-person plural for customs, reputations, and what people generally do. English often has no equally neutral “they,” so translations become passives or use “people.”
कहते हैं कि यह रास्ता रात में बंद रहता है।
kahte haiṃ ki yah rāstā rāt meṃ band rahtā hai.
They say that this road stays closed at night.
इस इलाक़े में रात का खाना देर से खाते हैं।
is ilāqe meṃ rāt kā khānā der se khāte haiṃ.
People eat dinner late in this area.
The passive कहा जाता है कि... is also natural, especially in (formal) and expository prose, but it presents the proposition as a circulating claim rather than briefly evoking generic speakers. Neither construction is inherently more correct; the information packaging differs.
The same contrast appears in service encounters:
क्या यहाँ पुराने फ़ोन खरीदते हैं?
kyā yahā̃ purāne fon kharīdte haiṃ?
Do they buy used phones here?
क्या यहाँ पुराने फ़ोन खरीदे जाते हैं?
kyā yahā̃ purāne fon kharīde jāte haiṃ?
Are used phones bought here?
The active question is usually the everyday choice because a shop's staff is easy to infer. The passive is possible when the transaction type itself is the topic, but it sounds more procedural.
A specific actor can also be recoverable
Hindi is a null-subject language. Once a person is salient, later active clauses can omit the pronoun without becoming passive.
रिया अभी आई थी; फ़ाइल मेज़ पर रख गई है।
riyā abhī āī thī; fāil mez par rakh gaī hai.
Riya was just here; she left the file on the desk.
The unspoken subject of रख गई है is Riya, and feminine गई reflects her. A passive would instead make the file the controller:
फ़ाइल मेज़ पर रखी गई है, लेकिन पता नहीं किसने रखी।
fāil mez par rakhī gaī hai, lekin patā nahīṃ kisne rakhī.
The file has been left on the desk, but no one knows who put it there.
English uses “has been left” in the second sentence because the actor is unknown. Hindi uses रखी गई है for the same patient-centered effect. In the first sentence, the actor is fully recoverable, so an active null subject is more direct.
Active intransitives can avoid a passive altogether
Hindi has many intransitive–transitive pairs. The intransitive member can describe a change, availability, or result without introducing an agent, and is often lighter than a formal passive.
इस बाज़ार में हाथ से बने खिलौने बिकते हैं।
is bāzār meṃ hāth se bane khilaune bikte haiṃ.
Handmade toys are sold in this market.
इस दुकान में केवल स्थानीय खिलौने बेचे जाते हैं।
is dukān meṃ keval sthānīya khilaune bece jāte haiṃ.
Only local toys are sold in this shop.
बिकते हैं is grammatically active and intransitive: the toys “sell/are available for sale.” बेचे जाते हैं is a transitive passive and makes the shop's selling practice explicit. English can translate both with “are sold,” hiding a contrast that Hindi marks overtly.
Other common result-oriented choices include दरवाज़ा खुला “the door opened,” काम बन गया “the matter worked out/got made,” and दूध उबल गया “the milk boiled.” They are not passives and do not imply a suppressed human agent in the same way.
Affirmative, negative, and question contrasts
Both strategies retain their own polarity and question structure.
इस केंद्र में बच्चों को मुफ़्त किताबें देते हैं।
is kendr meṃ baccoṃ ko muft kitābeṃ dete haiṃ.
At this center, they give children free books.
इस केंद्र में रविवार को किताबें नहीं देते।
is kendr meṃ ravivār ko kitābeṃ nahīṃ dete.
At this center, they don't give out books on Sundays.
क्या इस केंद्र में बच्चों को किताबें दी जाती हैं?
kyā is kendr meṃ baccoṃ ko kitābeṃ dī jātī haiṃ?
Are children given books at this center?
The negative active present may omit हैं after नहीं. The progressive and many other layered predicates retain their auxiliary. The passive question has feminine plural किताबें → दी जाती हैं; plural बच्चों को is a recipient and does not control agreement.
Common Mistakes
Mixing an active subject with passive agreement
❌ कर्मचारी हर आवेदन जाँचा जाता है।
Incorrect — कर्मचारी cannot head this active-looking clause while आवेदन controls a passive predicate.
✅ कर्मचारी हर आवेदन जाँचते हैं।
karmacārī har āvedan jā̃cte haiṃ.
The employees check every application.
Treating object gender as the controller of a generic active
❌ यहाँ लोग चिट्ठियाँ लिखती हैं।
Incorrect — masculine plural लोग is the active subject; feminine चिट्ठियाँ is the object, not the controller.
✅ यहाँ लोग चिट्ठियाँ लिखते हैं।
yahā̃ log ciṭṭhiyā̃ likhte haiṃ.
People write letters here.
Keeping masculine agreement in a feminine passive
❌ सभी रसीदें ईमेल से भेजे जाते हैं।
Incorrect — feminine plural रसीदें controls भेजी जाती हैं.
✅ सभी रसीदें ईमेल से भेजी जाती हैं।
sabhī rasīdeṃ īmel se bhejī jātī haiṃ.
All receipts are sent by email.
Putting the auxiliary before the passive carrier
❌ रिपोर्ट अब तैयार की है गई।
Incorrect — present auxiliary है must follow passive carrier गई.
✅ रिपोर्ट अब तैयार की गई है।
riporṭ ab taiyār kī gaī hai.
The report has now been prepared.
Key Takeaways
- An active Hindi subject may be generic, specific, and recoverable even when it is not pronounced.
- Generic active करते हैं keeps an understood plural actor; passive किया जाता है promotes the patient.
- A patient controls passive agreement, while an omitted active actor controls active agreement.
- Intransitives such as बिकना can provide a natural agentless alternative without passive morphology.
- Let information structure and register guide the choice; do not copy every English agentless passive mechanically.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- 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 with expressed agentC1 — Express a passive actor with द्वारा, के द्वारा, से, or के हाथों while choosing an appropriate Hindi register and preserving patient agreement.
- Impersonal passiveC1 — Understand Hindi impersonal passives with default masculine singular agreement, से-marked experiencers, inability readings, and deliberative uses.
- Transitive and intransitive verbsA1 — Distinguish verbs with direct objects from one-participant verbs and predict their core agreement patterns in imperfective and perfective clauses.
- Null subjects and omitted argumentsA2 — Learn when Hindi can leave a subject or object unspoken and how agreement, case, and discourse recover it.