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Article published In: FORUM
Vol. 23:2 (2025) ► pp.274–295

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Translating passive voice from English to Arabic

Functional assessment of translation strategies and procedures

 | An-Najah National UniversityNablus
ORCiD logo with link | An-Najah National UniversityNablus
 | Ministry of Education and Higher EducationAl-Masyoun, Ramallah
Published online: 1 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.25008.ham
Abstract
This article examines the translation of English passive structures into Arabic commonly found in news reports. Drawing on Systemic Functional Grammar, the article provides a functional assessment of all strategies used in the translation of a corpus of passive clauses collected from a variety of newspapers and news websites. The main theoretical underpinnings of this study draw on a functional definition of language, assuming that changes in structural choices inevitably lead to shifts in meaning. The analysis, therefore, identifies the different meanings/functions that are made available by the different grammatical configurations at a clause level. The findings of this study show that translators adopt four translation strategies in rendering passive clauses: translation by using nominalizations, translation by using the active voice, translation by using a direct passive translation, and translation by using adjectivals. These strategies seem to correlate with morphological and syntactic specificities, which make their employment predictable. More importantly, some grammatical realizations of these strategies involve functional shifts in one or more of the three meta-functions of language.
Résumé
Cet article examine la traduction des structures passives de l’anglais vers l’arabe, couramment présentes dans les reportages. En s’appuyant sur la grammaire fonctionnelle systémique, il propose une évaluation fonctionnelle de toutes les stratégies employées dans la traduction d’un corpus de propositions passives recueillies dans une variété de journaux et de sites Web d’information. Le cadre théorique de l’étude repose sur une définition fonctionnelle du langage, selon laquelle les choix structurels entraînent inévitablement des modifications de sens. L’analyse identifie ainsi les différentes significations/fonctions rendues possibles par les différentes configurations grammaticales au niveau de la proposition.
Les résultats montrent que les traducteurs adoptent quatre principales stratégies de traduction des formes passives : la nominalisation, la transformation en voix active, la traduction littérale à la voix passive, et le recours à des formes adjectivales. Le choix de ces stratégies semble lié à des particularités morphologiques et syntaxiques, rendant leur utilisation largement prévisible. Plus important encore, certaines de ces réalisations grammaticales impliquent des modifications fonctionnelles affectant une ou plusieurs des trois méta-fonctions du langage.
Article outline
  • 1.Translating passive voice: A brief overview
  • 2.The question of voice: A contrastive reading
  • 3.Challenges and strategies of translating passives from English into Arabic
  • 4.A methodological view
    • 4.1Systemic functional grammar and the translation of voice
    • 4.2Data collection
  • 5.Data analysis
    • 5.1Translation of passives into nominalizations
    • 5.2Translation of passive into actives clauses
    • 5.3English passive verbs translated into Arabic passives
    • 5.4Translating English passive verbs into adjectivals
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (33)
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