Questions & Answers about كشف السر فجأة.
How can we tell that كشف is passive ('was revealed') instead of active ('revealed') when there are no vowel marks?
Context is your main clue! If it were the active كَشَفَ (kashafa), it would mean 'he revealed,' and السر (the secret) would be the direct object. But since we don't have a person doing the revealing here, it makes more sense as the passive كُشِفَ (kushifa), meaning 'it was revealed.' This follows the standard فُعِلَ (fu'ila) vowel pattern for Form I past tense passive verbs.
Since 'the secret' is the thing being acted upon, is السر in the accusative (object) case here?
No, it actually takes the nominative case (ending with a damma: السرُّ). In Arabic passive sentences, the original object gets 'promoted' to take the place of the missing subject. This is called the deputy subject, and it always takes the nominative case, just like a regular subject.
How would I add 'by the spy' to this sentence if I wanted to specify who revealed it?
In traditional Arabic, you generally don't! The passive voice is specifically used when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately hidden. If you want to mention the spy, you should simply change the sentence back to the active voice: كَشَفَ الجاسوس السر (The spy revealed the secret).
Why does the adverb فجأة not have an extra alif at the end for its '-an' sound?
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