Question 1

How do we know هدم is passive, and how should it be pronounced?

Accepted Answer

For Form I past tense verbs, the passive voice is built using the vowel pattern فُعِلَ (fu'ila). Based on the context of the sentence, a building cannot demolish something else, so the verb must be passive. We pronounce it as هُدِمَ (hudima), meaning "was demolished".

Question 2

What is the grammatical role of المبنى in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

المبنى (the building) acts as the subject of the passive verb, often called the "deputy subject". In an active sentence, the building would be the object receiving the action. But in a passive sentence, the object is promoted to the subject slot and takes the nominative case. Because المبنى ends in an alif maqsurah (ى), its nominative case marker (the "u" sound) is implied rather than spoken.

Question 3

If the case ending on المبنى is invisible, how does that affect the adjective القديم?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives must match the grammatical case of the noun they describe. Because المبنى is grammatically nominative as the passive subject, the adjective القديم (old) must also be nominative. Since القديم ends in a regular consonant, it takes a fully visible damma case ending, pronounced as القديمُ (al-qadīmu).

Question 4

If I wanted to say the building was demolished "by the workers," how would I add that phrase to this sentence?

Accepted Answer

In standard Arabic, if you use this true passive form (هُدِمَ), you generally drop the doer of the action entirely. You do not typically attach a "by someone" phrase to a passive verb. If you need to mention who did it, you simply switch back to the active voice and say "The workers demolished the building."

هدم المبنى القديم في الشارع.

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