Question 1

How does مِن قِبَلِ work in this sentence, and why use it instead of just writing an active sentence?

Accepted Answer

In classical Arabic, passive sentences were strictly used when the doer of the action was unknown or deliberately hidden. However, in Modern Standard Arabic (especially in journalism), the phrase مِن قِبَلِ (literally 'from the part/side of') is used to translate the English 'by'. This allows you to construct a passive sentence like أبرمت الصفقة (the deal was concluded) while still explicitly naming the agent, الشركة.

Question 2

What grammatical case does الشركة take after مِن قِبَلِ?

Accepted Answer

It takes the genitive case, so it is pronounced الشركةِ (ash-sharikati). This is because the phrase مِن قِبَلِ functions as the first part of an Idafa (a possessive construction), making the noun that follows it the second part of the Idafa, which must always be genitive.

Question 3

Since both the deal and the company are feminine, what is the verb أبرمت actually agreeing with?

Accepted Answer

The verb أبرمت agrees in gender with الصفقة (the deal), not الشركة (the company). In an Arabic passive sentence, the object of the action is promoted to become the grammatical subject (the 'proxy agent'). The passive verb always agrees in gender with this new proxy agent, regardless of the gender of the actual doer introduced later by مِن قِبَلِ.

Question 4

How exactly is the verb أبرمت pronounced as a passive here?

Accepted Answer

It is pronounced أُبْرِمَتْ (ubrimat). This is a Form IV verb. To form the past tense passive, you change the first vowel to a 'damma' (u) and place a 'kasra' (i) on the middle root letter (the ر). So the active أَبْرَمَتْ (abramat - she concluded) becomes the passive أُبْرِمَتْ (ubrimat - it was concluded).

أبرمت الصفقة من قبل الشركة أمس.

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