Breakdown of أقيلت المديرة من قبل الشركة.
الal
the
مديرmudîr
manager
شركةsharika
company
من قبلmin qibali
by (used in passive sentences)
أقالaqâla
to dismiss / to fire (from a job)
Questions & Answers about أقيلت المديرة من قبل الشركة.
How does مِن قِبَلِ work here grammatically, and what case does الشركة take?
The phrase مِن قِبَلِ translates to 'by' and is used in modern Arabic to introduce the agent of a passive verb. Grammatically, قِبَلِ acts as the first part of an Idafa (possessive construction). Therefore, the noun that follows it, الشركة, must be in the genitive case (الشركةِ).
Why does the verb أقيلت take the feminine ending ـت if the agent is introduced later by من قبل?
In Arabic passive sentences, the verb always agrees in gender with the 'deputy subject' (the person or thing receiving the action). Because the receiver of the action here is المديرة (the female manager), the verb must take the feminine marker ـت to agree with her, even though the company did the firing.
How do you form the past passive for a Form IV hollow verb like أقيلت (uqīlat)?
The active past tense is أقالَت (aqālat). To make a Form IV hollow verb passive in the past tense, you place a damma on the first letter (أُ) and change the middle weak letter to a ya' (ي). This transforms the active أقالَت into the passive أُقيلَت (uqīlat).
If traditional Arabic avoids naming the agent in a passive sentence, how would you rewrite this in the active voice?
You would make the company the subject and the manager the direct object, resulting in أقالت الشركةُ المديرةَ (The company dismissed the manager). While the passive with مِن قِبَلِ is very common in modern news media, the active structure is still widely preferred in formal and literary writing.
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