CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with background of the study, identification of the
problems, limitation of the problems, formulation of the problems, objectives of the
study, and significances of the study.
A. Background of the study
Almost all languages in the world have passive voice forms, as well
English and Arabic. The passive voice is seldom used in Arabic, whereas the
passive voice is often used in English.
Hornby (1995: 847) states that passive voice is the form of a verb used
when the subject is affected by the action of the verb. Passive voice is the verb
that changes because of the subject is touched by the action of the verb.
English passive voice begins with a subject, auxiliary verb generally be,
past participle, and by phrase (optional). The subject of the passive voice is
affected by the object of the verb, and then the subject becomes the object of
passive verb. Azar (2002:208) states that "in the passive, the object of an active
verb becomes the subject of the passive verb". As a result the object of the verb is
the subject of the verb.
(1) The boy was helped by Mary.

The active from "The boy was helped by Mary" (example 1) is "Mary
was helped the boy" the subject is affected by the action of the verb, so the object
become the doer of the verb.
Auxiliary verb generally be is necessary and always used in English in
every passive voice. Wesley (1994:224) states that "passive sentence are formed
with the verb be (am, are, is, was, were, be, been, being) or get (get, gets, got,
gotten, getting) plus a past participle".
(2) A lot of crimes never get solved.
(3) The plane was refuelled and took off for Mexico. (Wesley.1994:224)
Abu-Chacra (2007:141) says that "the grammatical subject of the
passive verb is called in Arabic grammar nibul fail , which means the
deputy of the doer. Like any subject, it takes the ending of the nominative case
and the verb agrees with it in person, gender and number". Arabic passive voice is
called nibul fil or al-filul al-mahul .
Al-filul al-mahul is a sentence that is not mentioned the
subject in the sentence, but subject is discarded because there is a specific purpose
and after subject discarded, verb replaced the place of the subject. As the AbuChacra (2007:139) states "the passive verb al-filul al-mahul is used
in Arabic when the performer of the action is not named".
Abu-Chacra (2007:139) says that "the passive forms of the perfect and
imperfect tenses differ from their active counterparts by having different

vocalization". The Arabic passive verb is transforming from the active verb by
following wazan passive or called internal change and having different
vocalization.
Examples:
(4) alaqa Allahul insna af

Create-Allah-man-weak
'God created man weak'
(5) uliqa linsnu af

Created-man-weak
'Man was created weak' (Al-fathi. 2007:36)
The letter , lm, and qf if they are joined together, it would
have two sounds halaqa and huliqa . halaqa can be an active form as
the example (4) alaqa Allahul insna af and can be
passive form as the example (5) uliqa linsnu af . The case
of active and passive voice form are given by the components of the sentence. If
the sentence consists of two nouns, the first noun becomes subject and the second
noun becomes object, alaqa 1Allahul 2insna af , then the
sentence is an active voice form. If the sentence only consists of one noun, the
noun become object of the sentence, uliqa 1linsnu af , then
the sentence is a passive voice form.

An Arabic verb is not only made from three letters, but the Arabic verb
also consists of five and six letters. The rooting verbs from active into passive in
five and six letters are also different.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested to analyze
the passive voice, especially by comparative between English and Arabic passive
voice. It is because the formulation of passive voice in Arabic and English is
similar and it is different in analyzing how the passive voice is constructed.
B. Identification of the problem
It is important to discuss the problem because the researcher finds some
interesting topics that can be discussed. It is about the comparison between
English and Arabic passive voice.
English and Arabic languages are same in kind of having passive form,
but English and Arabic are two different languages. English and Arabic have
contrast differences in language system, passive voice element, word pattern, and
grammatical system.
English passive voice is constructed from auxiliary verb generally be
plus past participle verb. Verb form is very important in the role of constructing
passive voice. The past participle is constructed from the inflection of the base
verb. The past participle or V3 is the third verb forms of the base verb by adding
suffixes. The suffixes of the past participle are the main point in forming English
passive voice. Different from the English passive voice, the Arabic passive voice

is constructed from the internal vowel change of the verb (infix) and without to
be. The Arabic passive voice is made by changing vowel of the verb.
C. Limitation of the Problems
Based on the identification of the problems, there are some problems in
comparing English and Arabic passive voice. The researcher limits the problem
only on the similarities and differences between elements and patterns of passive
voice in English and Arabic.
D. Formulation of the Problems
Based on the identification above, the researcher formulates three
problems there are going to be answered. They are as follows:
1. What are the elements and patterns of English passive voice?
2. What are the elements and patterns of Arabic passive voice?
3. What are the similarities and differences between English and Arabic
passive voice?
E. Objective of the Study
The objectives of the study are formulated as follows:
1. To find out the elements and patterns of English passive voice.
2. To find out the elements and patterns of Arabic passive voice.
3.

To find out the similarities and differences between English and Arabic
passive voice.

F. Significance of the Study

There are some significances of the study they are as follows:
1. For the other researcher
a. To develop and have in sleeve by taking some general references to
consolidate the data for the other researcher who are interested in the
terms of comparing languages.
b. To provide the students of English Department of Ahmad Dahlan
University with more models of thesis of comparative language.
2. For the students who study English and Arabic
a.

To give experiences on the way of analyzing two languages at the

same time by focusing on the passive voice form.