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### The Passive Voice in the Past Tense

When reporting on local news or events, we often focus on the action rather than the person who did it—whether because the doer is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately concealed. To express "was stolen" or "was demolished," Arabic uses the passive voice (المبني للمجهول).

For basic past tense verbs, you do not need a new vocabulary word to form the passive voice. Instead, you simply change the internal short vowels of the active verb. The first letter takes a *damma* (ُ) and the middle root letter takes a *kasra* (ِ). 

The active pattern فَعَلَ becomes the passive pattern فُعِلَ. Even when written in everyday texts without the short vowel marks, context and sentence structure usually make it clear that the verb is passive.

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### Gender Agreement in the Passive Voice

In a passive sentence, the direct object of the action is promoted to become the new grammatical subject. As a result, the passive verb must agree with this new subject in gender. 

If the person or thing receiving the action is feminine, you simply attach the standard feminine past tense ending (ـت) to the passive verb to make the pattern فُعِلَت.

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### Negating the Passive Voice

Just like regular past tense verbs, you can negate a passive past tense verb by placing the particle **ما** directly before it to indicate that an action was not done.

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### Reporting Sequences of Events

Because passive verbs are so common in journalism and incident reports, you will frequently see them chained together using conjunctions to describe a sequence of events.

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The past passive voice (فُعِلَ)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

interrogative

noun

numeral

particle

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite article and locatives (الـ)

Basic noun gender (ة)

Sun and moon letters

Singular subject pronouns (أنا، أنت، هو، هي)

Indefinite nouns and nominal sentences (ـٌ)

Demonstrative pronouns for 'this' (هذا / هذه)

Separate prepositions (في، من، إلى، على)

Attributive adjectives

Predicative adjectives

Yes/No questions (هل، أ)

Basic questions (من، ما، أين)

Singular possessive pronouns (ـي، ـك، ـه، ـها)

Plural subject pronouns (نحن، أنتم، هم)

Plural possessive pronouns (ـنا، ـكم، ـهم)

Noun possession

Attached prepositions (بـ، لـ، كـ)

Pronouns with prepositions

Having and possessing (عند، لـ، مع)

Regular plural nouns (ـون، ـين، ـات)

Broken plurals

Dual nouns (ـان / ـين)

Plural and distant demonstratives (هؤلاء، ذلك، تلك)

Non-human plural agreement

Present tense singular verbs

Verbal sentences (VSO)

Present tense plural verbs

Topicalized sentences (SVO)

The indefinite accusative case (ـاً)

Verb object pronouns (-ني، -ك، -ه)

Present tense negation (لا)

Question words with verbs (متى، كيف...)

Adverbs of time and place

The future tense (سـ / سوف)

Intentions and desires (أن)

Negating states and possession (ليس)

Past tense singular suffixes

Past tense plural suffixes

Negating past events (ما)

Singular commands

Numbers 1 to 10

Number agreement for 1 and 2 (واحد، اثنان)

Asking how many (كم)

Numbers 3 to 10 (ثلاثة إلى عشرة)

Ordinal numbers 1 to 10 (الأول، الثاني)

Basic conjunctions (فـ، أو، لكن)

Ordering at a café (واحد، اثنان)

Food and drink with conjunctions (و، ف، أو، لكن)

There is and there are (هناك / ليس هناك)

Direct address (يا)

Giving reasons (لأنّ)

Relative pronouns (الذي / التي)

Quantifiers (كل / بعض)

The past tense of 'to be' (كان)

Past possession

Numbers 11 to 19 and tens to 80

Telling time (الساعة)

This book vs this is a book (هذا الكتاب، هذا كتاب)

Greetings (مرحبا، السلام عليكم)

How are you? and goodbye (كيف حالك، مع السلامة)

Nationalities (مصري، مصرية)

Roots and patterns (كتب، كتاب، مكتب)

Politeness (من فضلك، آسف)

Complex possession chains

Colors and traits (أفعل / فعلاء)

Plural colors and traits (فُعْل)

Comparative adjectives (أفعل من)

Superlative adjectives (أفعل)

Adverbs of manner (ـاً)

The nominative case (ـُ)

The genitive case (ـِ)

The accusative case (ـَ)

Dual noun cases (ـان / ـين)

Masculine plurals and 'the best of' (أفضل النجارين)

Emphasizing sentences (إنّ)

Connecting clauses (أنّ)

Reporting speech (قال إنّ)

Expressing contrast (لكنّ)

Comparison and probability (كأنّ, لعلّ)

Distant plural pointing (أولئك)

Plural relative pronouns (الذين, اللواتي)

Past habits (كان + present)

Ongoing actions (ما زال)

Masculine plurals online (مبرمجون، مؤثرون)

Perfective past (قد)

Probability (قد)

The subjunctive mood (أن)

Question	Answer
to transport	نقلnuqila
The money was stolen and transported to an unknown place.	سرق المال ونقل إلى مكان مجهول.suriqa al-mâlu wa-nuqila ilâ makânin majhûlin
to reveal	كشفkushifa
The secret was revealed suddenly.	كشف السر فجأة.kushifa as-sirru faj'atan
to kidnap	خطفkhataf
gang	عصابةisâba
The minister was kidnapped, but we did not know the gang.	خطفت الوزيرة لكننا ما عرفنا العصابة.khutifati l-wazîratu lâkinnanâ mâ 'arafnâ l-'isâbata
to demolish	هدمhadama
The old building in the street was demolished.	هدم المبنى القديم في الشارع.hudima al-mabnâ al-qadeemu fee ash-shâri'i
to loot	نهبnahaba
to burn	حرقhurriqa
The store was looted, then burned in the night.	نهب المتجر ثم حرق في الليل.nuhiba al-matjaru thumma huriqa fi al-layli.
to ban	حظرhazara
Entry to the area was banned.	حظر الدخول إلى المنطقة.huzhira ad-dukhûlu ilal-mintaqah.
to dismiss	عزلazala
The manager was dismissed because of the problem.	المديرة عزلت بسبب المشكلة.al-mudîratu uzilat bisababi al-mushkilati
to kill	قتلqutila
The thief was killed when he tried to escape.	قتل اللص عندما حاول أن يهرب.qutila l-lissu 'indamâ hâwala an yahruba
The source of the news was not revealed until now.	ما كشف مصدر الخبر حتى الآن.mâ kushifa masdaru al-khabari hattâ al-âna
The gang stole the bank, and nothing else was looted.	العصابة سرقت البنك وما نهب شيء آخر.al'isâbatu saraqati l-banka wa mâ nuhiba shay'un âkhar
The bridge was demolished, and we were not able to arrive.	الجسر هدم وما استطعنا أن نصل.al-jisru hudima wa maa istata'naa an nasila
The file was burned, and the data was transferred to a new computer.	حرق الملف ونقلت البيانات إلى حاسوب جديد.huriqa al-milaffu wa nuqilati al-bayânâtu ilâ hâsûbin jadîdin
The ambassador was kidnapped, but he was dismissed from his job later.	السفير خطف لكنه عزل من وظيفته في وقت لاحق.as-safîru khutifa lâkinnahu 'uzila min waẓîfatihi fî waqtin lâhiqin
The use of the internet was not banned.	ما حظر استخدام الإنترنت.mâ huzira istikhdâmu l-'interniti.
Was the boss of the gang killed yesterday?	هل قتلت رئيسة العصابة أمس؟hal qutilat ra'îsatu l-iṣâbati amsi?