Contrastive analysis on structure of passive sentence

1. Contrastive analysis on structure of
passive sentence
in English and Arabic
Bashayer Dhafer Al.Qahtani
Lamya Mohammad Al.Zahrani

2. In Arabic language we have
one structure ( verb + object )
Future
(‫الزرع‬ ‫ُحصد‬‫ي‬‫س‬)
Past
)‫الزرع‬ ‫ُصد‬‫ح‬(
Present
( ‫الزرع‬ ‫ُحصد‬‫ي‬ )

3. In English there are many
:structures
Present simple ( object + am , is, are + past participle)
Past simple ( object + was ,were + past participle)
Present continuous ( object + am , is , are + being + past participle)
Present perfect ( object +have , has + been + past participle)

4. In English there are many
:structures
Past continuous ( object + were , was +being+past participle)
Past perfect ( object + had + been + past participle)
Future ( object + will + be + past participle)
Modals ( object + modal +be + past participle )

5. how we can translate the passive sentences
To translate English passive sentence to Arabic
, we must follow the structure of Arabic
language ( verb + object )

6. :1- Present simple
( The boy is helped ) : we begin with the verb (is helped)
translate it to (‫َد‬‫ع‬‫ُسا‬‫ي‬) because it's in present .Then ,
translate the object ( The boy ) , it becomes (‫الولد‬ ‫َد‬‫ع‬‫ُسا‬‫ي‬
)
2- Present continuous : ( The letter is being written ) :
we begin with the verb (is helped) translate it to (‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬)
because it's in present .Then , translate the object (
The letter ) , it becomes (‫الرسالة‬ ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬)

7. 3- Present perfect :
( The house has been cleaned ) : we begin with the
verb (has been cleaned ) translate it to (‫ف‬َ‫ظ‬‫ين‬)
because it's in present .Then , translate the object
(The house ) , it becomes (‫المنزل‬ ‫ف‬َ‫ظ‬‫ُن‬‫ي‬)
4- Past simple :
( The door was opened ) : we begin with the verb (was
opened ) translate it to (‫تح‬ُ‫ف‬) because it's in past
.Then , translate the object (The door ) , it becomes
(‫الباب‬ ‫تح‬ُ‫ف‬)

8. 5- Past continuous:
( The customer was being helped ) : we begin with the verb (was
being
helped) translate it to (‫ُوعد‬‫س‬) because it's in past .Then ,
translate the object (The customer) , it becomes (‫العميل‬ ‫ُوعد‬‫س‬)
6-Past perfect :
( The cars had been repaired ) : we begin with the verb (had been
repaired ) translate it to (‫صلحت‬ُ‫ا‬) because it's in past .Then ,
translate the object (The cars ) , it becomes (‫السيارة‬ ‫صلحت‬ُ‫ا‬)

9. 8- Modals :
( The window should be opened ) : we begin with the verb
(should be opened ) translate it to (‫فتح‬ُ‫ت‬ ‫ان‬ ‫يجب‬).Then , translate
the object (The window) , it becomes (‫النافذة‬ ‫فتح‬ُ‫ت‬ ‫ان‬ ‫يجب‬)
7- Future :
(The work will be finished ) : we begin with the verb (will be
finished ) translate it to ( ‫سينتهي‬ ) because it's in future .Then ,
translate the object (The cars ) , it becomes ( ‫العمل‬ ‫سينتهي‬ )

10. by using passive, the subjects (or the doers of the
action ) are not mentioned. Passive has
particular structure and form in each language .
They should not be confused or ignored in the
translation . The students of translation must
know the rules of translation passive sentences
from English to Arabic and vice versa , to avoid
the common mistakes .Point which is supposed
to know that English passive sentence structure
differs from Arabic passive sentence structure
and it must be taken into account.

11. References :
Ghazala, H. (2012). Passive style. In Translation as problems
and solution (pp. 246-248). Jeddah.
S.Azar, B., & A.Hagen, S. (2009). The Passive.
In Understanding and Using English Grammar (pp. 213-220).
The United States of America.
Passive Verb Forms. (2015). Retrieved November 14, 2015, from
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html