Active and
Passive Voice
Quick Navigation: Past Tense | Present Tense | Present Tense Negation | Plural Negation | Emphasis Singular & Plural.
Vowel: A = Active voice | U = Passive voice.
Active Voice: tells Who
did/does the Action | Passive Voice: does Not mention Who
did the Action (but that 'the
action WAS / IS done' )
Past Tense words: Vowel applied on
1st root letter [of the 3 Root letters of a Word].
Present tense words: Vowel applied on Prefix
letter attached [to the 3 Root letters of a Word].
Past Tense:
Singular:
DARaBa = he hit
DARaBat = she
hit
DURiBa - he/it WAS hit*
DARaBnee = Hit Me ضُرِبنِي
DARaBtu = I Hit ضَرَبتَُ
DARaBta = You Hit. [singular] ضَرَبتَ
Plural:
DARaBnaa = We
Hit ضَرَبنَا
DARaBtumaa
= You two Hit ضَرَبتُمَا
DARaBtum
= You all Hit. ضَرَبتُم
NOTE: * The Passive form can apply to all the Active voices, except that the A on the 1st root letter is replaced by the
U. i.e. DARaBta [You Hit]
= DURiBta ضُرِبتَ [You WERE Hit] etc.
Singular:
yADRiBu - he hits يَضرِبُ
yUDRiBu -
he IS hit
Plural:
yADRiBoon - they ARE hitting يَضرِبُون
yUDRiBoon -
they WERE hit?
Present Tense
Negation:
If you add either of the following words
in the front of the above mentioned [Past or Present phrases];
LaM [ لَم ] =
Past Tense "No"
LaN [ لَن ] = Future Tense "No"
- There will be some slight changes in the way the Phrases are said.
Past Tense:
The words will stay the same.
I.e.
LaM DARaBtu
[لَم ضَر َبتُ ]= I DID NOT hit.
[LaN (Future
tense 'No') - has not been used because we are referring to the Past tense.]
Present Tense:
Singular:
By adding the 'Lam' or 'Lan' before a
Verb - the Damma/Peysh off
a word's last letter will be removed.
I.e.
LaM yaDRiB[u] = He DID NOT hit. [ لَم يَضرِب ]
LaN yaDRiB[u] = He WILL
NOT hit. [ لَن يَضرِب]
(The Letter or Sound in [square
brackets] has been removed due to the 'LaN' and 'LaM'.)
Plural Negation:
By adding the 'Lam' or 'Lan' before a
Verb in the Plural - the final letter Nuun/N is
dropped*, and it is said;
LaM yADRiboo[n] (i.e. they DID NOT hit) [ لَم يَضرِبُوا ]
LaN yaDRiboo[n] (i.e. they WILL
NOT hit) [ لَن يَضرِبُوا]
(The Letter or Sound in [square brackets]
has been removed due to the 'LaN' and 'LaM'.)
NOTE: *Other words which also follow this rule (of removing
the Damma or Nuun/N) are
the Words/Prepositions:
In [If] ( إن ), Lammaa [When] (لَمَّا ), Li [ لِ For], & Laa [No].لاَ
Emphasis – LA [prefix] and –UNNA [suffix]:
In arabic, the letter
Laam with a 'A' [fat-ha/zabar]
on it ['LA'] has a meaning of "Surely". This is said before the Verb/Action,
and the Doer. [i.e. LA
yaDRiBu = SURELY he
hit]
Along with this 'LA', the suffix '-nna' [Nuun with Shadda] can be
attached to the end - to strengthen the Emphasis
even more.
Due to the '-nna'
suffix attached to the end of the Verb/action & Doer, it makes it difficult
to attach or say 'OO' [plural] as mentioned in Present-Tense Negation section.
Therefore the 'A'
and 'U' is
used to describe Singular, or Plural respectively.
La-yADRibA-nna - He will surely hit
[active, singular]
La-yUDRiBU-nna - They WERE surely hit. [passive, plural]
NOTE: Changes can be made with vowels accordingly for
different meanings, i.e. La-yADRiBUnna
= They WERE Surely hitting. [active, plural]
etc.