In English, it is not uncommon to express the agent of the passivized action using a by-phrase, e.g. \u201cthis book was written by a famous author\u201d. In Arabic, the passive construction is used mostly without the by-phrase and the agent remains unknown. When we need to use the by-phrase in Arabic, we use the expression (\u0645\u0646 \u0642\u0628\u0644) \/min qibal\/ to express \u2018by\u2019.<\/p>\n
When the subject is known, we use active sentences to express it. For example, to translate the sentence \u201cthis book was written by a famous author\u201d, we use the sentence (\u0647\u0630\u0627 \u0627\u0644\u0643\u062a\u0627\u0628 \u0643\u062a\u0628\u0647 \u0645\u0624\u0644\u0641 \u0645\u0634\u0647\u0648\u0631.) We can also use the passive (\u0647\u0630\u0627 \u0627\u0644\u0643\u062a\u0627\u0628 \u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0645\u0646 \u0642\u0628\u0644 \u0645\u0624\u0644\u0641 \u0645\u0634\u0647\u0648\u0631). However, the use of the active sentence is more idiomatic in Arabic style.<\/p>\n
I remember when I was at university, I was always advised by my translation teachers to avoid translating the English passive into Arabic passive but to use the active instead. Although I did not take the advise, there are some strategies that can be used to translate English passive into active in Arabic. One way of changing passive constructions into active in Arabic is to use the construction \u062a\u0645\u00a0 + \u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631 instead of the passive verb, e.g. \u201cthe company was founded in the eighties\u201d can be translated into:<\/p>\n
(\u0623\u064f\u0646\u0634\u0626\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0634\u0631\u0643\u0629 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u062b\u0645\u0627\u0646\u064a\u0646\u064a\u0627\u062a) or<\/p>\n
(\u062a\u0645 \u0625\u0646\u0634\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0634\u0631\u0643\u0629 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u062b\u0645\u0627\u0646\u064a\u0646\u064a\u0627\u062a)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In English, it is not uncommon to express the agent of the passivized action using a by-phrase, e.g. \u201cthis book was written by a famous author\u201d. In Arabic, the passive construction is used mostly without the by-phrase and the agent remains unknown. When we need to use the by-phrase in Arabic, we use the expression…<\/p>\n