The Arabic Passive Voice: فُعِلَ and يُفْعَلُ Explained
English builds the passive with extra words: writes becomes is written. Arabic does something more elegant — it keeps the same letters and simply changes the vowels inside the verb. كَتَبَ (kataba, he wrote) becomes كُتِبَ (kutiba, it was written), and يَكْتُبُ (yaktubu, he writes) becomes يُكْتَبُ (yuktabu, it is written). This is why Arabic grammarians call the construction الْمَبْنِيّ لِلْمَجْهُول — built for the unknown — because the doer of the action goes unmentioned.
This guide covers the two core patterns فُعِلَ and يُفْعَلُ, the vowel-change rules that generate them, the situations where Arabic actually prefers the passive, and some famous Quranic examples where the passive carries real theological and rhetorical weight.
The Past Passive: فَعَلَ Becomes فُعِلَ
For a Form I verb in the past tense, the passive recipe is: every vowel before the last root letter becomes damma, and the vowel on the last root letter (before any suffix) becomes kasra. Applied to كَتَبَ, the pattern فَعَلَ turns into فُعِلَ: كُتِبَ (kutiba, it was written).
The noun that follows a passive verb is not an object — it is the نَائِب الْفَاعِل (deputy of the subject), the thing the action happened to, and it takes the nominative case like any subject. All the usual person suffixes still apply: كُتِبَتْ (it, feminine, was written), كُتِبُوا (they were written about, rarely used of people), and so on — only the internal vowels differ from the active.
The Present Passive: يَفْعَلُ Becomes يُفْعَلُ
In the present tense the recipe flips: the prefix vowel becomes damma, and the stem vowel before the last root letter becomes fatha — whatever it was in the active. So يَكْتُبُ (with damma stem) and يَجْلِسُ (with kasra stem) and يَفْتَحُ (with fatha stem) all level out to the same passive shape: يُكْتَبُ (yuktabu), يُفْتَحُ (yuftahu).
This leveling is a gift to learners: you never need to remember the active stem vowel to form a present passive. The mood system still applies on top — يُكْتَبُ is indicative, أَنْ يُكْتَبَ subjunctive, لَمْ يُكْتَبْ jussive — and all thirteen person forms keep their usual prefixes and suffixes.
Beyond Form I: Derived and Weak Verbs
The same two principles — damma early, kasra late in the past; damma prefix, fatha stem in the present — extend across the derived forms. Form II عَلَّمَ (to teach) gives عُلِّمَ and يُعَلَّمُ; Form IV أَرْسَلَ (to send) gives أُرْسِلَ and يُرْسَلُ; Form X اِسْتَخْدَمَ (to use) gives اُسْتُخْدِمَ and يُسْتَخْدَمُ. Form VII (اِنْفَعَلَ) has no passive because it is already passive-like in meaning.
Weak roots bend the pattern. Hollow verbs contract: قَالَ (to say) gives قِيلَ (it was said) and يُقَالُ (it is said); بَاعَ (to sell) gives بِيعَ and يُبَاعُ. Defective verbs end differently: دَعَا (to invite) gives دُعِيَ and يُدْعَى; بَنَى (to build) gives بُنِيَ and يُبْنَى. These forms — especially يُقَالُ and يُذْكَرُ — are everywhere in formal prose.
When Arabic Prefers the Passive
Arabic uses the passive more narrowly than English. The central rule: the agent is normally not mentioned at all. Classical Arabic has no comfortable equivalent of the English by-phrase — you do not say the letter was written by Zayd; you either say Zayd wrote the letter or the letter was written, full stop. Modern journalistic Arabic sometimes borrows مِنْ قِبَلِ (on the part of) for a by-phrase, but careful stylists avoid it.
The passive earns its place in a few characteristic situations: when the doer is unknown (سُرِقَ الْمَالُ, the money was stolen), when the doer is obvious and naming it is unnecessary (خُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ, man was created — by God, understood), when the speaker deliberately conceals the doer, and in impersonal formulas of reporting and scholarship: يُقَالُ (it is said), يُرْوَى (it is narrated), يُذْكَرُ (it is mentioned). News and academic prose lean on it heavily: اُعْتُقِلَ الْمُشْتَبَهُ بِهِ (the suspect was arrested).
- Unknown agent: فُتِحَ الْبَابُ — the door was opened, by whom we do not know
- Obvious agent: خُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفًا — man was created weak
- Concealed agent: سُرِقَ الْمَالُ — the money was stolen, thief unnamed
- Reporting formulas: يُقَالُ، يُرْوَى، يُذْكَرُ — it is said, narrated, mentioned
- Focus on the event: اُنْتُخِبَ الرَّئِيسُ — the president was elected
The Passive in the Quran
The Quran uses the passive with precision, and recognizing it transforms your reading. In verse 2:183, كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ (fasting has been prescribed for you), the passive كُتِبَ presents the obligation as divinely decreed without foregrounding the agent — the same verb root as writing, used in the sense of prescribing. In 21:37, خُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ مِنْ عَجَلٍ (man was created from haste), the passive keeps the focus on the human condition.
Surah Ar-Rum opens with غُلِبَتِ الرُّومُ (30:2, the Romans have been defeated), a passive announcing a historical event where the defeated party, not the victor, is the point. And 7:204 commands: وَإِذَا قُرِئَ الْقُرْآنُ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ (when the Quran is recited, listen to it) — the passive قُرِئَ covers any reciter, anywhere. Watching for the damma-kasra melody of فُعِلَ is one of the fastest ways to level up Quranic reading.
Learning the Passive Efficiently
Because the passive is a vowel melody laid over verbs you already know, the best practice is transformation drills: take an active sentence and flip it. كَتَبَ الطَّالِبُ الدَّرْسَ becomes كُتِبَ الدَّرْسُ — verb vowels change, the object becomes the nominative deputy subject.
Fahm's grammar course includes both an introductory passive lesson and an in-depth B2 lesson covering hollow, doubled, and defective verbs, and the conjugation trainer keeps your active paradigms sharp so the passive transformation has something solid to operate on. The Quran reader is the natural place to spot فُعِلَ patterns in the wild.
Frequently asked questions
How is the passive voice formed in Arabic?
By internal vowel changes, not auxiliary verbs. Past tense: vowels before the last root letter become damma and the last root vowel becomes kasra (كَتَبَ → كُتِبَ). Present tense: the prefix takes damma and the stem vowel becomes fatha (يَكْتُبُ → يُكْتَبُ).
Can I mention the doer in an Arabic passive sentence?
Classically, no — the whole point of الْمَبْنِيّ لِلْمَجْهُول is that the agent goes unmentioned. Modern media Arabic sometimes adds مِنْ قِبَلِ to express by, but traditional style prefers rewriting the sentence in the active.
What is نَائِب الْفَاعِل?
The deputy of the subject: the noun that was the object of the active sentence and becomes the grammatical subject of the passive one, taking the nominative case. In كُتِبَ الدَّرْسُ, the word الدَّرْسُ is the na'ib al-fa'il.
How do I recognize a passive verb without vowel marks?
Context and common patterns. Unvoweled text makes كتب ambiguous between kataba and kutiba, but formulas like يقال (yuqalu) and news verbs like اعتقل after a headline pattern are reliably passive. Reading voweled texts first trains the instinct.
Do all verb forms have a passive?
Almost all. Forms I through VI and VIII through X follow the same vowel principles. Form VII (اِنْفَعَلَ) has no passive because its meaning is already passive or reflexive.
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