How to translate passive voice in English into Arabic.

2. Passive and active voices are two contrastive
forms and styles. They have different functions.
Therefore, they should not be confused or ignored
in Arabic translation.
The passive voice is accepting or allowing what
happens or what others do, without active response
or resistance. It is used to show interest in the
person or object that experiences an action rather
than the person or object that performs the action.
In other words, the most important thing or person
becomes the subject of the sentence.

3. By using passive style, the subject (or the doer
of the action) is not mentioned, which helps
avoid embarrassing others or being
embarrassed.
We might find many difficulties in translating
this kind of voice; because it is very different
from Arabic Language . Here we will try to
explain how to make passive sentences and
how to translate them into Arabic Language
without falling in mistakes.

4. The Basic structure of passive voice:
When rewriting active sentences in passive
voice, note the following:
the object of the active sentence becomes the
subject of the passive sentence.
the finite form of the verb is changed (to be +
past participle).
the subject of the active sentence becomes the
object of the passive sentence (or is
dropped).
So the typical structure of any passive voice
will be formed like the following:

5. Subject+ Auxiliary verbs +Main verb (past
participle)+ By+ Agent
The basic structure of passive voice in Arabic:
The passive voice is widely used in Arabic
without the negative associations regarding
style that the passive voice has in English.
American students are often uncomfortable with
the passive voice when reading Arabic texts
because the unvoweled passive conjugations
often look exactly like active voice conjugations.
Optional

6. Since many students often are horrified at the
thought of reading for meaning and
recognizing words in context, and since they
are usually very weak in grammar,
sentences in the passive often are totally
misunderstood.
Below are the passive voice conjugations for
the verb
ُ‫َص‬‫ح‬ْ‫َف‬‫ي‬,َ‫َص‬‫ح‬َ‫ف‬
(“to examine”) in the past tense.

7. SingularDualPlural
‫أنا‬ُ‫حصت‬ُ‫ف‬‫أنتما‬‫ما‬ُ‫ت‬‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬‫نحن‬‫نا‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬
ِ‫ت‬‫أن‬ِ‫ت‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬‫هما‬‫حصا‬ُ‫ف‬‫أنتم‬
ْ‫م‬ُ‫ت‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬
َ‫أنت‬َ‫ت‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬‫هما‬‫َتا‬‫ص‬‫ح‬ٌ‫ف‬‫أنتن‬
‫ن‬ُ‫ت‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬
‫هو‬‫حص‬ُ‫ف‬‫هم‬
‫صوا‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬
‫هي‬‫َت‬‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬‫هن‬َ‫ن‬ْ‫ص‬ِ‫ح‬ُ‫ف‬

8. Now we will see how the passive can be
used in Arabic and English sentences:
How to translate different tenses of passive
into Arabic:
Unlike Arabic language , English language has
many different types of structures. There are
many kinds of auxiliary verbs in passive and
active voices
1-‫لت‬َ‫ت‬َ‫ق‬‫القطة‬.1- She killed the cat.
2-‫تلت‬ُ‫ق‬‫القطة‬.2- The cat was killed.

9. we must care about how to translate them
correctly. We are concerned about how to
translate the passive voices of them here:
1)- Present simple: ( The letters are written by
Sara) will be translated as:
(‫سارة‬ ِ‫ل‬َ‫ب‬ِ‫ق‬ ‫من‬ ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬ ُ‫الرسائل‬)
We translate the verb ( is written) into
(‫الرسائل‬)then translate the object(‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬)
and continue the translating of the sentence.

10. 2)- Present progressive: (The letters are being
written by Sara) will be translated as (ُ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬
‫سارة‬ ‫بل‬ِ‫ق‬ ‫من‬ ُ‫الرسائل‬) . We translate the verb
( are being written) into (ُ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬) then translate
the object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue the
translating of the sentence.
3)- Present perfect: (The letters have been
written by Sara) will be translated as ( ُ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬
‫سارة‬ ‫بواسطة‬ ‫.)الرسائل‬ We translate the verb
( are being written) into (ُ‫كتب‬ُ‫ت‬) then translate
the object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue the
translating of the sentence.

11. 4)- Past simple: (The letters were written by
Sara) will be translated as (‫الرسائل‬ ‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬
‫سارة‬ ‫)بواسطة‬ . We translate the verb ( were
written) into (‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬) then translate the object
(‫الرسائل‬) and continue the translating of the
sentence.
5)- Past progressive: (The letters were being
written by Sara) will be translated as (‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬
‫سارة‬ ‫بواسطة‬ ‫الرسائل‬) . We translate the verb
( were being written) into (‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬) then
translate the object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue
the translating of the sentence.

12. 6)- Past perfect: (The letters have been written
by Sara) will be translated as (‫الرسائل‬ ‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬
‫سارة‬ ‫)بواسطة‬ . We translate the verb ( have
been written) into (‫بت‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ك‬) then translate the
object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue the translating
of the sentence.
7)-Future: (The letters will be written by Sara)
will be translated as (َ‫ب‬ِ‫ق‬ ‫من‬ ‫الرسائل‬ ُ‫َب‬‫ت‬‫ك‬ُ‫ت‬ َ‫س‬ِ‫ل‬
‫)سارة‬ . We translate the verb ( will be
written) into (ُ‫َب‬‫ت‬‫ك‬ُ‫ت‬ َ‫س‬) then translate the
object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue the translating
of the sentence.

13. 8)- Modals: (The letters must be written by Sara)
will be translated as (‫الرسائل‬ َ‫َب‬‫ت‬‫ك‬ُ‫ت‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يجب‬
‫سارة‬ ‫.)بواسطة‬ We translate the verb ( must be
written) into (ُ‫َب‬‫ت‬‫ك‬ُ‫ت‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يجب‬) then translate the
object (‫الرسائل‬) and continue the translating of
the sentence.
Common mistakes of translating passive voice
into Arabic:
There is a common mistake of changing the
passive into active by Arab and Arabic speaking
translators who claim that Arabic is an active
language, but English is not. This is absolutely
wrong and it is not confirmed by any Arabic
linguist.

14. The following example shows you how to
translate English passive into Arabic passive
correctly:
Six children were killed yesterday
The doer of the action is not mentioned so
we must be well sure that this sentence
should be translated into Arabic passive like:
(‫أمس‬ ‫يوم‬ ‫أطفال‬ ‫ستة‬ ‫ل‬ِ‫ت‬ُ‫ق‬).

15. The passive can be changed into active in
one form which keeps the doer of the
action hidden like:
(‫تم‬‫أمس‬ ‫يوم‬ ‫أطفال‬ ‫ستة‬ ‫تل‬َ‫ق‬)
we must use the verb (‫تم‬) in this case.

16. We might consider that both active and passive
have the same meaning, at first sight. Yet,
careful consideration shows that they are totally
different. That is the active sentence states
clearly the doer of the action while the passive
sentence
hides him.
Unlike active voice, passive voice aims at
concentrating on the result of the action and the
action itself and it is not concerned with who
does that action. Caring about the differences
between passive and active functions in
translating texts into Arabic gives them more
accuracy.

17. Ghazala, H. (2012). Stylistic problems. In Translation as
problems and solutions. Dar El-ilm Lilmalayin.
Passive Voice. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-
up/grammar/passive .
Definition of passive in English:. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/passive .
English Grammar Tenses. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.lingolex.com/tensexp.htm .
The Passive Voice.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://allthearabicyouneverlearnedthefirsttimearound.co
m/p2/p2-ch3/the-passive-voice
Elewa, A. (2014). Level Of Translation.