Another participle form that is frequently used in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic to form nouns and adjectives is the passive participle. A passive participle describes the action performed or the object upon which the action is done. The passive participle is derived from the corresponding verb.
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Passive Participle Base Form
The most common form of a passive participle is مَـفْـعُـوْل (maf‘ūl).
For instance, from the verb كَــتَــب (katab) ‘he wrote,’ we can derive the passive participle مَــكْــتُـــوْب (maktūb), meaning ‘written’ or ‘letter.’
Feminine, dual, and plural markers can be added to the base passive participle form as follows:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
| Singular | مَــفْــعُــوْل maf‘ūl | مَــفْــعُــوْلِــة maf‘ūleh |
| Dual | مَــفْــعُــوْلِــيــن maf‘ūleyn | مَــفْــعُــوْلْــتِــيــن maf‘ūlteyn |
| Plural | مَــفْــعُــوْلِــيْــن maf‘ūlīn | مَـــفْـــعُـــوْلَات maf‘ūlāt |
Think of the English suffix ‘-ed’ in ‘booked,’ ‘-en’ in ‘written,’ or ‘-ne’ in ‘done.’ Similarly, Arabic uses a variety of prefixes, infixes, and suffixes to form the passive participle.
Passive Participle Derived Forms
The ten most common passive participle patterns are:
| I | II | III | IV | V |
| مَــفْــعُــوْل maf ‘ūl | مْـــفَــعَّـــل mfa‘‘al | مُــفَــاعَـــل mufā‘al | مُــفْــعَــل muf ‘al | مُــتَــفَــعَّــل mutafa‘‘al |
| VI | VII | VIII | IX | X |
| مُــتَــفَــاعَــل mutafā‘al | مُــنْــفَــعَــل munfa‘al | مُــفْــتَــعَــل mufta‘al | مِـــفْـــعَـــلّ mif ‘all | مُــسْــتَــفْــعَــل mustaf ‘al |
Here are examples of the most common patterns of the passive participle in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic:
| I | فِـــهِـــم fihim he understood | —> | مَـــفْــهُـــوْم mafhūm understood | دَفَــــع dafa‘ he paid | —> | مَـــدْفُــــوْع madfū‘ paid |
| II | وَظَّــــف waẓẓaf he employed | —> | مْـــوَظَّــــف mwaẓẓaf employee | عَـــقَّـــد ‘aqqad he complicated | —> | مْــعَـــقَّـــد m‘aqqad complicated |
| III | عَــــاقَــــب ‘āqab he punished | —> | مُــعَــــاقَــــب mu‘āqab punished | رَاقَــــب rāqab he monitored | —> | مُـــرَاقَــــب murāqab monitored |
| IV | أَفْـــــرَد ’afrad he singled out | —> | مُـــفْـــــرَد mufrad singular | أَعْـــجَـــب ’a‘jab he impressed | —> | مُـــعْـــجَـــب mu‘jab impressed |
| V | تْــــوَقَّــــع twaqqa‘ he expected | —> | مُـــتَـــوَقَّـــع mutawaqqa‘ expected | تْـــخَـــيَّـــل tkhayyal he imagined | —> | مُــتَـــخَـــيَّـــل mutakhayyal imaginary |
| VI | تْــبَـــادَل tbādal he exchanged | —> | مُـــتَــبَــادَل mutabādal mutual | تْــقــاسَـــم tqāsam it shared | —> | مُــتَــقَــاسَــم mutaqāsam shared |
| VII | اِنْـــحَــــدَر inḥadar it went downhill | —> | مُــنْــحَــدَر munḥadar downhill | اِنْــعَــطَــف in‘aṭaf he turned | —> | مُــنْــعَــطَــف mun‘aṭaf turn, curve |
| VIII | اِجْــتَــمَــع ijtama‘ he gathered | —> | مُــجْــتَــمَــع mujtama‘ society | اِنْــتَـــخَـــب intakhab he elected | —> | مُــنْــتَـــخَـــب muntakhab elected |
| IX | اِحْــــمَــــرّ iḥmarr it became red | —> | مِـــحْــــمَــــرّ miḥmarr reddish | اِسْــــــوَدّ iswadd it became black | —> | مِـــسْــــــوَدّ miswadd blackish |
| X | اِسْــتَــقْــبَــل istaqbal he received | —> | مُــسْــتَــقْــبَــل mustaqbal future | اِسْـــتَـــأْجَـــر ista’jar he rented | —> | مُــسْــتَــأْجَــر musta’jar rented |
Notice that Pattern IX of the passive participle is identical to that of the active participle. This pattern is rarely used, except for a few color adjectives.
The passive participles in the above list are used as either nouns or adjectives. Some common words have active participle forms but have historically acquired their own specific meanings. For example, the word مَــكْــتُـــوْب (maktūb) is the passive participle form of the past verb كَــتَــب (katab) ‘he wrote.’ Therefore, the word مَــكْــتُـــوْب (maktūb) literally means ‘written,’ e.g., نَـــصّ مَــكْــتُــوْب (naṣṣ maktūb) ‘written text.’ However, the word مَــكْــتُـــوْب (maktūb) has also historically acquired the meaning of ‘letter.’
This applies to many other words in Arabic following passive participle forms, such as مَـشْـرُوْع (mashrū‘) ‘project,’ مَـــفْــهُـــوْم (mafhūm) ‘concept,’ مُــجْــتَــمَــع (mujtama‘) ‘society,’ مُـــعْـــجَـــب (mu‘jab) ‘fan or admirer,’ مُــنْــتَـــخَـــب (muntakhab) ‘national sports team,’ and مُــسْــتَــقْــبَــل (mustaqbal) ‘future.’
Passive participle adjectives can also be used to describe actions that are in the passive voice. We will cover the passive voice in more detail in Level VI, Lesson 1.
Other lessons in Level V: