Learn how to use the passive voice to talk about actions done by other people
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 18 - Has Your Arabic Lecture Been Cancelled Again? Becky Here. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about actions done by other people by using the passive voice effectively. The conversation takes place in a university. |
| Hany: It's between Eleanor and Karim. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| إلينور: ألغيت محاضرة اليوم. لو كنت أعرف لما استيقظت مبكراً هكذا. |
| كريم: لا أظن أنها ألغيت. انظري إلى هذا التنبيه. |
| : "ستُلقى المحاضرة غداً في الساعة التاسعة صباحاً بدلاً من اليوم" |
| إلينور: إذاً فقد أجلت. كيف يغيرون ميعاد المحاضرة من دون أن يخبروننا؟ |
| كريم: هل تفقدتي بريدك الإلكتروني ليلة أمس؟ |
| إلينور: لا... أنتظر لحظة.. أنت على حق. هناك بريد إليكتروني من سكرتيرة القسم.. |
| كريم: هذا جزاؤكي لأنك سخرت مني هذا الصباح! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Eleanor: The lecture was cancelled today. If I'd known, I wouldn't have woken up so early. |
| Karim: I don't think it's cancelled. Look at this note. |
| : "The lecture will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m. instead of today." |
| Eleanor: Oh it was postponed. How could they change the time of the lecture without telling us? |
| Karim: Did you check your email last night? |
| Eleanor: No, wait a moment. You're right. There is an email from the department secretary. |
| Karim: That's your punishment for making fun of me this morning! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hany, are school schedules mixed up by cancellation a lot in Egypt? |
| Hany: Classes and lectures getting delayed, cancelled, or postponed is a regular thing in Egypt, especially in government-owned universities or جامعة حكومية |
| Becky: What does that depend on? |
| Hany: It totally depends on the professors. Not everyone is late all the time, it's just very common. |
| Becky: And what about students? Can they also be late? |
| Hany: Well, as a student you are expected to be on time, so it’s better to take care and don't leave it to luck! |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: لغى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to cancel |
| Hany: لغى[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: لغى [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: لو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: if |
| Hany: لو[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: لو [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: استيقظ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to wake up |
| Hany: استيقظ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: استيقظ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: تنبيه [natural native speed] |
| Becky: note |
| Hany: تنبيه[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: تنبيه [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: أجل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to postpone |
| Hany: أجل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: أجل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: غَيَّرَ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to change |
| Hany: غَيَّرَ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: غَيَّرَ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: ميعاد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: time |
| Hany: ميعاد[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: ميعاد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: تَفَقَّد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to check |
| Hany: تَفَقَّد[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: تَفَقَّد [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: سكرتيرة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: secretary |
| Hany: سكرتيرة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: سكرتيرة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Hany: جزاء [natural native speed] |
| Becky: penalty, punishment |
| Hany: جزاء[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: جزاء [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Hany: بَدَلاً مِن |
| Becky: meaning "instead of" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of two words: badalan meaning "instead," and min meaning "of." |
| Becky: There has to be a noun following this expression, just like in English. If you want to put a verb after it, it has to be in the noun form as well. |
| Hany: Right, here is an example... أُريد مائاً بَدَلاً مِن العَصير. (ʾurīd māʾan badalan min al-ʿaṣīr.) |
| Becky: ..which means "I want water instead of the juice." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: أَنتَ عَلى حَق |
| Becky: meaning "you are right" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of three words: anta meaning "you," 'ala meaning "on," and haq meaning "truth." You can change the pronoun to أنت meaning “you” or أنا meaning “I” or any name or person to refer to different people. The word haq stays the same. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. زَوْجَتي عَلى حَقٍّ دائِماً. (zawǧatī ʿalā ḥaqqin dāʾiman.) |
| Becky: .. which means "My wife is always right." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: سَخَرتُ مِن |
| Becky: meaning "made fun of" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of two words: sahirtu meaning "made fun," and min meaning "of." |
| Becky: It's just like its English equivalent, meaning "made fun of (someone or something)" |
| Hany: That’s right, and you can change it to the present tense, of course. You can use it to refer to people or acts. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. الكُلُّ يَسخَرُ مِن أَفعالِك. (al-kullu yasḫaru min ʾafʿal-ik.) |
| Becky: .. which means "Everyone is making fun of your acts." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about using the passive voice effectively.. |
| Hany: And we’ll talk about the passive voice and its final vowelling rules or نائب الفاعل و إعرابه |
| Becky: How is it different from a normal sentence? |
| Hany: Basically, the difference between the active voice sentence and the passive voice sentence lies in two main things: The verb form and the final vowelling of the object of the verb. |
| Becky: First of all, let’s talk about passive verbs. Needless to say, passive verbs have to be transitive verbs, just like in English. What is an example of passive voice from the dialogue? |
| Hany: أُلغِيَت مُحاضَرَةُ اليَوْم. لَوْ كُنتُ أَعرِفُ لَما اِستَيْقَظتُ مُبَكِّراً هَكَذا. (ʾulġiyat muḥāḍaraẗu al-yawm. law kuntu ʾaʿrifu lamā istayqaẓtu mubakkiran hakaḏā.) |
| Becky: Meaning “The lecture was cancelled today. If I'd known, I wouldn't have woken up so early.” |
| Hany: The verb أُلغِيَت is the past passive form of the verb لغى meaning “to cancel”. |
| Becky: Just like active verbs, passive verbs have many forms according to their tense also, which creates so many variations. Let’s take a look at some of these variations for both the present and the past tense. |
| Hany: For the present, if the verb has no vowels in its stem form, we add a damma to the first letter, and a fat-ha to the letter before the final letter. For example: كَتَبَ (kataba) becomes كُتِب (kutiba) |
| Becky: Which means “to be written” |
| Hany: For the past, If the verb has no vowels in its stem form, we add a damma to the first letter, and a kasra to the letter before the final letter. For example: فُتِحَ (fataha) becomes فَتَحَ (futiha) |
| Becky: which means “to have been opened” |
| Hany: For the present, if the verb is in the maziid form, we add a damma to the initial “y” sound that occurs in all maziid verbs, add a fat-ha to the letter before the final letter, then turn any vowel into an “a” sound. For example: يسقط (yasqutu) becomes يُسقِط (yusqitu) |
| Becky: Which means “to be dropped.” |
| Hany: For the past, if the verb is in its maziid form, we add a damma to the first vowelled letter, add a kasra to the letter before the last, then turn any vowel into an “i” sound. For example, أسقط (asqata) becomes أُسقِط usqita. |
| Becky: Which means “to have been dropped.” Listeners you’ll find all the details for other verb forms in the lesson notes. Let’s take a look at the final vowelling STATE of the passive verb. |
| Hany: Passive verbs gain a new vowelling state called بناء binaa’ |
| Becky: That is a unique vowelling state in the sense that it abides by the natural vowelling signs we mentioned before. So basically it changes according to the nature of the stem form of every verb, and has no specific vowelling sign. Now let’s apply what we just learned to a line from the dialogue. |
| Hany: Let’s consider لا أَظُنُّ أَنَّها أُلغِيَت. اِنظُري إلى هَذا التَنبيه. (lā ʾaẓunnu ʾannahā ʾulġiyat. inẓurī ʾilā haḏā al-tanbīh.) |
| Becky: which means “I don't think it's cancelled. Look at this note.” |
| Hany: Here, the verb in the active form used to be أَلغى algaa, then by switching it to the passive form, it becomes أُلغِيَ ulgiya. |
| Becky: Why did that happen? |
| Hany: Because it’s in the past form, and it is a maziid form, making it gain a damma on the initial letter, and a kasra on the letter before the final letter, and lastly the “a” sound in the end turned into an “i” sound. The “t” in the end is a feminine 3rd person pronoun referring to the lecture. |
| Becky: Second, let’s talk about the subject. |
| Hany: Normally, the object is called مفعول به maf’uul bihi but in a passive voice sentence, the object is called نائب فاعل naa’ib faa’il. The word نائب (naa’ib) means “substitute” |
| Becky: the reason the name changes from “object” to “substitute subject” is because of the nature of passive verbs. A passive verb implies that the action was inflicted upon the object by an unknown subject, making the substitute subject both a subject and an object at the same time. |
| Hany: As far as final vowelling goes, نائب الفاعل meaning “substitute subject” is finally vowelled just like the “subject” or faa’il فاعل. |
| Becky: For example, in the dialogue we have |
| Hany: أُلغِيَت مُحاضَرَةُ اليَوْم. لَوْ كُنتُ أَعرِفُ لَما اِستَيْقَظتُ مُبَكِّراً هَكَذا. (ʾulġiyat muḥāḍaraẗu al-yawm. law kuntu ʾaʿrifu lamā istayqaẓtu mubakkiran hakaḏā.) |
| Becky: meaning “The lecture was cancelled today. If I'd known, I wouldn't have woken up so early.” |
| Hany: Here, the substitute subject muḥāḍaraẗu or “the lecture” has the exact same final vowelling state and signs as the subject. |
| Becky: So basically, the easiest thing to do is to treat it just like a subject when it comes to vowelling. Can we see how active sentences change into passive ones? |
| Hany: Sure, for example, ألقى الأستاذ المحاضرة. (alqaa al-ustaaz al-muhaadarah.) |
| Becky: meaning “The professor gave the lecture.” |
| Hany: Becomes أُلقِيَت المحاضرة. (ulqiyat al-muhaadarah.) |
| Becky: meaning “The lecture was given.” |
| Hany: فتح الرجل النافذة.(fataha al-rajul al-naafizah.) |
| Becky: meaning “The man opened the window.” |
| Hany: Becomes فُتِحَت النافذة. (futihat al-naafizah.) |
| Becky: meaning “The window was opened.” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Hany: شكرا |
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