A Comparative Analysis of Passive Voice in Farsi and Pashto Languages

Abstract

Two prominent languages of the Indo-Iranian branch, Pashto and Persian, have different passive voice formulations that reflect their own grammatical structures and cultural backgrounds. This article analyzes the passive structure of the Pashto language. The Pashto language has a passive structure that shares many structural similarities with the Persian language. This study aimed to educate EFL learners, teachers, and interpreters in Afghanistan on how to effectively use English, Pashto, and Persian in learning and teaching. A qualitative study was undertaken to analyze the passive voice structures in Persian and Pashto languages. The study utilized library-based techniques. Various structures of passive within tenses were analyzed in detail. The results showed that both Farsi and Pashto use almost the same pattern in changing an active into a passive one. The study found that passive voice is not only limited to some verb identifiers and past participle forms, but also involves transitivity alternation in both Farsi and Pashto languages.