145. Passives in general. Arabic is one of many languages having a special form of the verb to express the Passive. (Other languages, like English and French, achieve the same result by compounding the verb “to be” with the past-participle of the verb in question: “A kills B” becomes “B is killed by A”.) The general pattern of the Arabic verb used for the Passive is essentially identical with or similar to the māḍī and the muḍāri' (including the Subjunctive and Jussive variations) as we have so far encountered them, but the vowel-pattern is characteristically different: basically, it is u-i-a in the māḍīi and u-sukūn-a-u in the muḍāri'. The 3 m.s. Passive of both Aspects is given in the next paragraph for the Ground and each of the main Derived Forms, using the radicals KTB throughout for demonstration purposes. Perhaps the most important thing to note about the Arabic Passive is that it is of fairly rare occurrence in any case, and that it is virtually never used where the agent's identity is stated. The Arabic name for it is al-majhūl, “the not-known”, in token of this fact.

146. Principal Passives in 3 m.s. Once the following table has been learned, the remaining persons, numbers and so on can be readily made as for the Active māḍī and mūḍāri' in all the relevant positions:

Note that the additional prefixed syllables tend to be made with u in the māḍī, but with a in the mwḍāri'; also that the “structural” appearance differs from the Active only in III and VI of the mādī, where ū replaces ā, i.e. wāw replaces alif.