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Lesson 41B2

Passive Voice: All Tenses

निष्क्रिय वाच्य: सभी काल

English builds every passive tense from the same be + past participle pattern, only ever changing be. Hindi's own passive works in a surprisingly similar way: it uses जाना (to go) as an auxiliary next to a participle, and it's जाना that shifts tense while the participle itself stays fixed — one of the rare places where English and Hindi grammar line up almost directly.

Grammar Comparison

व्याकरण तुलना

Only the auxiliary changes tense; the participle stays fixed — in both languages

English

is built (present) / was built (past) / has been built (present perfect) / will be built (future) — built never changes, only be does

Hindi

बनाया जाता है / बनाया गया था / बनाया गया है / बनाया जाएगा — बनाया कभी नहीं बदलता, सिर्फ़ जाना बदलता है

Hindi's passive is formed with the past participle of the main verb (बनाया) plus a conjugated form of जाना, and it's जाना alone that carries the tense — बनाया जाता है (is built), बनाया गया था (was built), बनाया गया है (has been built), बनाया जाएगा (will be built). English does exactly the same trick with be instead of जाना: the past participle (built, written, seen) never changes at all, and only be shifts to whatever tense the sentence needs. Once you know a verb's participle in either language, you can build its passive in any tense just by changing the auxiliary.

Vocabulary

शब्दावली

EnglishPronunciationHindi
is builtiz biltबनाया जाता हैbanāyā jātā hai
was builtwuz biltबनाया गया थाbanāyā gayā thā
has been builthaz been biltबनाया गया हैbanāyā gayā hai
will be builtwil bee biltबनाया जाएगाbanāyā jāegā