Voice

The voice of a verb refers to the relationship of the subject of the verb and the action of the verb.

Active Voice

The subject of an active verb performs the action of the verb.

For instance, in the sentence “He threw the ball”, “he” is the subject of the verb “thew”, and the subject performs the action of the verb (the throwing).

Passive Voice

The subject of a passive verb receives the action of the verb.

For instance, in the sentence “The ball was thrown by him”, “ball” is the subject, and the subject receives the action of the verb.

The Active Voice in Hindi

Most of the verbs discussed in other articles have been active verbs. There is no special structure for active verbs. However, there is a unique structure of all passive verbs.

The Passive Voice in Hindi

Passive verbs in Hindi are formed by appending an inflected form of the verb जाना to the perfect participial form of the main verb. The structure is therefore as follows:

[perfect participle of main verb] [inflected form of जाना]

Like all verbs, जाना inflects according to person, number, gender, tense, etc. The perfect participle also agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Examples

गेंद फेंका जायेगा – “The ball will be thrown”

खिड़कियाँ खोली गयी थीं – “The windows had been opened”

Refer to the section on the Hindi passive voice for more detail.

7 replies on “Voice”

Hai David, why is it खिड़कियाँ खुली गयीं थीं – “The windows had been opened” here and
किताबें बनायी जा रही थीं – “The books were being made”… I mean if you used “khuli” instead of “khulayi” as it is used in the 2nd sentence?? After all, both verbs “khulna” and “banna” are of same kind..pls lemme know if i am wrong anywhere

Hi, Divija. That was a mistake; the verb should be “खोली गयी थीं”. Note that खुल गयी थीं is also a verb form. There is a subtle difference: “खोली गयी थीं” means “were opened” (i.e. it implies agency, that someone opened them, but it doesn’t say who explicitly), whereas “खुल गयी थीं” means “(had) opened” (e.g. “मेरी आँखें खुल गयी थीं” means “my eyes had been opened” or “my eyes were opened”), etc. The former is called a “passive verb”, the latter is called a “compound verb”.

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