Passive Voice in Persian

In Brief

Persian normally forms the passive with a past participle (a verb form such as نوشته “written”) followed by a conjugated form of شدن “to become”: نامه نوشته شد “the letter was written.” The form of شدن carries the tense, person, and negation. An agent can be introduced with توسط “by,” but Persian often omits the agent or chooses an active sentence instead.

Overview

The passive voice presents an event from the perspective of the person or thing affected by it, rather than the person doing it. Compare active معمار این خانه را ساخت “The architect built this house” with passive این خانه ساخته شد “This house was built.” In the active sentence, the architect is the subject (the sentence element that performs or controls the action). In the passive sentence, the house becomes the subject, while the builder may be left unmentioned.

This is a B2 topic because using the passive well involves more than memorizing one form. You need to choose the right tense of شدن, distinguish a true passive event from a state, and recognize when Persian prefers an active or impersonal expression. The passive is common in news, academic prose, official notices, reports, and any context where the result matters more than the agent. It is less frequent in everyday Persian than its English counterpart.

The construction builds on forms you already know from the Persian perfect tenses. Both use a past participle, but they use different auxiliaries (helping verbs): the perfect uses بودن “to be,” while the passive uses شدن “to become.” Thus او نامه را نوشته بود means “He/she had written the letter,” but نامه نوشته شده بود means “The letter had been written.”

How It Works

The core pattern

A basic active transitive sentence has this shape:

agent + object + را + verb

دانشجو مقاله را نوشت.
“The student wrote the article.”

To make it passive:

1. Move the object into the subject role.
2. Normally remove را, because the noun is no longer the direct object (the person or thing directly affected by an active verb).
3. Change the lexical verb into its past participle.
4. Add شدن in the required tense.
5. Omit the agent, or add it with توسط if it is genuinely useful.

مقاله نوشته شد.
“The article was written.”

The past participle is formed from the past stem plus ـه. For example, نوشتن “to write” has the past stem نوشتـ, giving نوشته “written”; ساختن “to build” gives ساخته “built”; and دیدن “to see” gives دیده “seen.”

Infinitive	Past participle	Passive example	Meaning
نوشتن	نوشته	نوشته شد	was written
ساختن	ساخته	ساخته شد	was built
دیدن	دیده	دیده شد	was seen
انتخاب کردن	انتخاب‌شده / انتخاب شده	انتخاب شد	was selected
بررسی کردن	بررسی‌شده / بررسی شده	بررسی شد	was examined

With many compound verbs made from a noun or adjective plus کردن, Persian commonly replaces کردن with شدن: اعلام کردن “to announce” → اعلام شدن “to be announced,” and بررسی کردن “to examine” → بررسی شدن “to be examined.” You will therefore often see نتیجه اعلام شد, not a mechanically expanded form modeled on every simple verb.

Tense is carried by شدن

The participle stays unchanged. Conjugate شدن to place the passive event in time.

Tense or form	Pattern	Example	English
Simple past	participle + شد	نامه فرستاده شد.	The letter was sent.
Imperfect / habitual past	participle + می‌شد	نامه هر هفته فرستاده می‌شد.	The letter used to be sent every week.
Present / habitual	participle + می‌شود	نامه امروز فرستاده می‌شود.	The letter is being/will be sent today.
Present perfect	participle + شده است	نامه فرستاده شده است.	The letter has been sent.
Past perfect	participle + شده بود	نامه فرستاده شده بود.	The letter had been sent.
Future	participle + خواهد شد	نامه فردا فرستاده خواهد شد.	The letter will be sent tomorrow.
Subjunctive	participle + شود	باید نامه فرستاده شود.	The letter must be sent.

The Persian present می‌شود covers several English possibilities. Depending on context, جلسه برگزار می‌شود can mean “The meeting is held,” “is being held,” or “will be held.” Time expressions and context usually remove the ambiguity.

Person and number

The endings attach to شدن and agree with the passive subject. This matters especially when the subject is a person.

Person	Simple past passive of دعوت کردن	English
من	دعوت شدم	I was invited
تو	دعوت شدی	You were invited
او	دعوت شد	He/she was invited
ما	دعوت شدیم	We were invited
شما	دعوت شدید	You were invited
آن‌ها	دعوت شدند	They were invited

With an inanimate plural subject, formal writing may use plural agreement, but singular agreement is also widespread, especially when the plural is understood collectively: کتاب‌ها چاپ شد / چاپ شدند “The books were printed.” Follow edited usage in the kind of Persian you are writing, and use plural agreement when you want the correspondence to be fully explicit.

Negation

Negate the form of شدن, not the participle. The negative prefix نـ comes before میـ where both occur.

Affirmative	Negative	Meaning
ساخته شد	ساخته نشد	was not built
چاپ می‌شود	چاپ نمی‌شود	is not printed / will not be printed
فرستاده شده است	فرستاده نشده است	has not been sent
تأیید شده بود	تأیید نشده بود	had not been approved
منتشر خواهد شد	منتشر نخواهد شد	will not be published
ثبت شود	ثبت نشود	be registered / not be registered

Mentioning the agent with توسط

If the doer must be stated, formal Persian often uses توسط followed by the agent:

این رمان توسط سیمین دانشور نوشته شد.
“This novel was written by Simin Daneshvar.”

When a following noun is closely linked to توسط, you may hear or see the linking ezafe vowel: توسطِ نویسنده. It is normally not written as a separate letter. به‌وسیلهٔ “by means of” can also introduce an agent or instrument, but it is formal and often heavier.

Do not add a توسط phrase automatically just because English has “by.” If the agent is central, an active sentence is usually clearer:

• Passive and formal: گزارش توسط مدیر نوشته شد.
• Often more natural: مدیر گزارش را نوشت.

Examples in Context

Persian	English	Note
این خانه در سال ۱۳۵۰ ساخته شد.	This house was built in 1971/72.	Simple past; the result is foregrounded.
کتاب توسط او نوشته شده است.	The book has been written by him/her.	Explicit agent; formal style.
در ساعت نه بسته شد.	The door was closed at nine.	Context determines whether this is a passive event or “the door closed.”
این غذا در آن منطقه زیاد خورده نمی‌شود.	This food is not eaten much in that region.	Negative habitual passive.
درخواست شما دریافت شده است.	Your request has been received.	Common formal notification.
نتایج فردا اعلام خواهد شد.	The results will be announced tomorrow.	Formal future passive.
باید همهٔ فرم‌ها امضا شوند.	All the forms must be signed.	Subjunctive after باید; plural agreement.
وقتی رسیدیم، جلسه شروع شده بود.	When we arrived, the meeting had already started.	A change of state; English may not use a passive.
خیابان برای تعمیر بسته شده بود.	The street had been closed for repairs.	Past perfect passive/resulting state.
این موضوع در جلسه بررسی می‌شود.	This issue will be discussed at the meeting.	Present form with future meaning.
هیچ‌کس در این حادثه زخمی نشد.	No one was injured in this accident.	Lexical compound with شدن.
چرا چراغ‌ها خاموش شدند؟	Why did the lights go out?	Change of state, not necessarily passive.
دو نفر برای مصاحبه انتخاب شدند.	Two people were selected for an interview.	Human plural subject.
هنوز تصمیم نهایی گرفته نشده است.	The final decision has not yet been made.	Negative present perfect.

Common Mistakes

Keeping را after the noun becomes the subject

• Wrong: این نامه را نوشته شد.
• Right: این نامه نوشته شد.
• Why: In the passive sentence, این نامه is the subject, not a marked direct object. The object marker را belongs in the active version: او این نامه را نوشت.

Using بودن instead of شدن

• Wrong: نامه نوشته بود for “The letter had been written.”
• Right: نامه نوشته شده بود.
• Why: نوشته بود belongs to an active past perfect when a subject is understood: “he/she had written.” Passive meaning requires شده بود after the lexical participle.

Negating the participle

• Wrong: نافرستاده شد for “was not sent.”
• Right: فرستاده نشد.
• Why: Ordinary passive negation is carried by شدن. A form such as نافرستاده can function adjectivally (“unsent”), but that is a different structure.

Copying every English passive

• Awkward: اشتباه توسط من انجام شد.
• Natural: من اشتباه کردم.
• Why: “A mistake was made by me” may serve a rhetorical purpose in English, but conversational Persian strongly prefers the direct active sentence here.

Overusing توسط

• Heavy: این ساختمان توسط یک شرکت محلی طراحی و توسط کارگران ماهر ساخته شد.
• Better: یک شرکت محلی این ساختمان را طراحی کرد و کارگران ماهر آن را ساختند.
• Why: Repeated agent phrases make Persian bureaucratic and hard to follow. If the agents matter, make them subjects.

Assuming every form with شدن is passive

• Misreading: هوا سرد شد = “The weather was made cold.”
• Correct reading: هوا سرد شد = “The weather became cold.”
• Why: شدن is also an ordinary verb meaning “to become,” and many compound expressions describe a change of state rather than an action by an unstated agent.

Usage Notes

Passive sentences are particularly at home in formal and informational registers. News reports use them when the event matters more than who caused it: قانون تصویب شد “The law was passed.” Academic writing uses them to describe procedures: داده‌ها تحلیل شدند “The data were analyzed.” Notices and customer messages use them to focus on status: سفارش شما ثبت شد “Your order was registered.”

Everyday speech more often keeps an active agent or uses a third-person-plural verb with an unspecified “they”: می‌گن فردا مدرسه رو می‌بندن “They say they’re closing the school tomorrow.” This does not mean the formal passive is unnatural; it means register and focus matter. In conversation, منو دعوت کردن “They invited me” is often more idiomatic than the more formal من دعوت شدم “I was invited.” Colloquial spelling may also show می‌شه for standard written می‌شود, but formal writing normally retains the full form.

A sentence such as در بسته شد is structurally ambiguous. It may report an agentless passive event, “The door was closed,” or an inchoative change, “The door closed.” Persian often leaves this distinction to context. If the agent must be clear, name it in an active sentence. If the resulting state matters, در بسته بود means “The door was closed/shut,” with بودن describing the state rather than the event of closing.

English speakers should watch two habits. First, English uses passives very freely, including conversational passives with named agents. Persian often sounds better when that agent simply becomes the active subject. Second, English tense labels do not map one-to-one onto می‌شود: do not assume it can only mean a timeless present. A phrase such as فردا منتشر می‌شود naturally means “It will be published tomorrow.”

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Event, result, and state

Three closely related patterns can describe different viewpoints:

Persian	Typical interpretation	Focus
در را بستند.	They closed the door.	Unspecified human agents
در بسته شد.	The door closed / was closed.	Event or change
در بسته بود.	The door was closed.	Existing state
در بسته شده بود.	The door had been closed / had become closed.	Earlier completed change and its result

The distinction is semantic (about meaning), not merely a matter of replacing one auxiliary. Context may blur the boundary, especially with verbs that naturally describe changes such as opening, closing, breaking, and turning off.

Modal and subordinate clauses

After باید “must/should,” formal Persian commonly uses the short subjunctive passive شود/شوند: مدارک باید تا فردا ارسال شوند “The documents must be sent by tomorrow.” The same form appears in subordinate clauses after expressions that call for a possible, desired, or necessary event: لازم است مشکل حل شود “It is necessary for the problem to be solved.”

Passive-like lexical pairs

Many Persian compound verbs form a productive active/intransitive pair with کردن and شدن:

Active	Intransitive or passive counterpart	Example
باز کردن, to open something	باز شدن, to open	پنجره باز شد.
خاموش کردن, to turn something off	خاموش شدن, to go out / be turned off	چراغ خاموش شد.
شروع کردن, to start something	شروع شدن, to begin	کلاس شروع شد.
منتشر کردن, to publish	منتشر شدن, to be published	مقاله منتشر شد.

These شدن forms do not always imply a deliberate agent. چراغ خاموش شد may simply mean “The light went out.” Learn each compound as a pairing and ask whether the sentence presents an action done by someone or merely a change.

Stylistic alternatives

Persian can avoid a passive in several ways: use an explicit active subject, use third-person plural for an unspecified human agent, or choose a construction that names the event directly. Skilled writing varies these options rather than filling every paragraph with توسط and شدن. The passive is most effective when the affected item is already the topic, the agent is unknown or irrelevant, or naming the agent would distract from the result.

Practice Tips

1. Transform complete pairs. Start with five active sentences containing را, such as شرکت محصول را تولید کرد. Remove را, promote the object, and form محصول تولید شد. Then reverse the process so you understand the roles rather than memorizing a phrase.
2. Build a tense ladder. Keep one participle and cycle through ارسال شد، ارسال می‌شود، ارسال شده است، ارسال شده بود، ارسال خواهد شد، ارسال شود. Add negative versions only after the affirmative sequence feels automatic.
3. Compare real registers. Collect passive forms from Persian news headlines, official messages, or product notifications. For each one, rewrite it as conversational Persian with an active subject or unspecified “they,” then decide which version fits the context better.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Past Perfect (Pluperfect) — reinforces the participle-plus-auxiliary pattern and helps you distinguish شده بود from active نوشته بود.