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انْكَتَب

Forming the passive

Turning a verb passive by putting ان on the front

English makes a verb passive with an extra word: it was written, it got stolen. Levantine does it with a prefix instead. Put "ان" on the front of a plain past-tense verb and you have the passive of it.

So "كَتَب" is he wrote, and "انْكَتَب" is it was written. "عَمَل" is he did, and "انْعَمَل" is it was done. The pattern is completely regular for three-letter verbs, which is what makes it worth learning as a pattern rather than as a list.

For the present tense the "ب" goes on the front as usual, giving "بِنْكَتِب" — it gets written.

Keywords

  • verb
  • verb
  • verb

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