1. Morphology
The finite passive is formed two ways in Arabic: internally (the apophonic passive) and externally (formed by a prefix). The apophonic passive displays the vowel sequence u – i instead of a – a or a – i of its active counterpart in the perfect. In the imperfect, the apophonic passive uniformly displays the vowel a instead of i/u (as the second vowel), and all the forms are inflected with the u-series of the prefixes:
(1) |
perfect |
imperfect |
|||
I |
faʿala |
fuʿila |
yafʿa/i/ulu |
yufʿalu |
|
II |
f… |