Passive Agent Marking: par vs. de
कर्मवाच्य में कर्ता कैसे बताया जाए: par बनाम de
Hindi, like English, marks the passive agent with a fairly uniform postposition (से/के द्वारा) regardless of the kind of verb involved. French splits this job between two prepositions — par for concrete, active, one-time actions, and de for states or habitual conditions — a distinction neither English nor Hindi makes, so it can't be predicted from either language.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
par for active, concrete agents
La maison a été construite par des ouvriers.
घर मज़दूरों के द्वारा बनाया गया।
par is the default and by far the more common choice, used for an agent actively performing a concrete, one-time action — building, writing, breaking, discovering. Hindi's के द्वारा works the same way here and is a safe match for par.
de for states, emotions, and habitual/permanent conditions — a split Hindi's से/के द्वारा doesn't make
Il est aimé de tous. / La montagne est couverte de neige.
उसे सब प्यार करते हैं। / पहाड़ बर्फ़ से ढका है।
A smaller set of verbs describing an emotional state (aimer, respecter, détester) or a permanent/habitual physical condition (couvrir, entourer) take de instead of par for their agent. Hindi gives no reliable clue here either — बर्फ़ से ढका ('covered with snow') and सब प्यार करते हैं (recast as an active sentence, since Hindi rarely passivizes 'loved') use से or an active construction fairly interchangeably, with no consistent active/state distinction behind the choice, exactly like English's arbitrary 'by' vs. 'with'. These French verbs have to be learned per verb, with no Hindi or English shortcut: être aimé de, être respecté de, être connu de, être suivi de, être accompagné de, être couvert de, être entouré de.
The same verb can take either, with a shift in meaning
Le château est entouré de gardes. vs. Le château est entouré par la police.
क़िले के चारों तरफ़ पहरेदार हैं (एक स्थायी स्थिति) बनाम पुलिस क़िले को घेर रही है (अभी हो रही घटना)
entourer can take de for a static, ongoing state of affairs, or par when the surrounding is happening as an active event in progress. Hindi doesn't distinguish these two readings with different grammatical markers either — both would likely be recast as two entirely different active sentences, as shown here, rather than choosing between two prepositions on one passive verb the way French does — so French's de/par choice on a single verb is a genuinely new grammatical tool, not a re-labeling of anything Hindi already flags.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- के द्वाराke dvārā
- English
- by (active, concrete agent)
- Hindi
- सेse
- English
- by (state, emotion, habitual condition)
- Hindi
- से प्यार किया जानाse pyār kiyā jānā
- English
- to be loved by
- Hindi
- से ढका होनाse ḍhakā honā
- English
- to be covered with/by
- Hindi
- से घिरा होनाse ghirā honā
- English
- to be surrounded by
- Hindi
- के लिए जाना जानाke lie jānā jānā
- English
- to be known by
- Hindi
- के पीछे होनाke pīche honā
- English
- to be followed by
- Hindi
- के साथ होनाke sāth honā
- English
- to be accompanied by