Three Voices: Active, Reflexive and Passive
Three Voices: Active, Reflexive and Passive¶
In English there are only two voices, active and passive.
Active voice: The man cut the tree
Passive: The tree is cut by the man.
In Pāli that would be rendered as
puriso rukkhaṃ chindati
rukkho purisena chindīyati
In Sanskrit, there are three distinct voices of verbs, active, reflexive or middle and passive. In Pāli (as in all the other Prakrit languages), only two voices are now primarily used, the active and the passive.
The only time you will encounter the middle or reflexive voice is in poetry, but it is important to recognise it, since these verses contain important and subtle doctrinal ideas.
Active Voice¶
Almost all the verbs you have dealt with so far have been in the active voice.
the way the active voice is constructed is:
root + conjugational sign > base
√dhā (to put) + a > daha (irreg)
prefixes + base + parassapada verbal endings
saṃ + ā + daha + ti > samādahati
Hopefully you have no problems with that.
Passive Voice¶
You have also learned how to form passive verbs in this way:
root + passive sign > passive base
√dhā + iya > dhiya (pass)
prefixes + passive base + parassapada verbal endings
saṃ + ā + dhiya + ti > samādhiyati
Middle Voice or Reflexive Voice¶
As mentioned, this voice has virtually died out in prose, but still exists to a significant degree within verse. First let’s look at the construction, then at the meaning.
the middle voice is constructed using an active base with attanopada verbal endings.
root + conjugational sign > base
√labh (to get) + a > labha
prefixes + base + attanopada verbal ending
labha + te > labhate
How to translate this?
Reflexive verbs can be translated into English with a reflexive pronoun.
labhate
he himself gets something
he obtains something for himself
The reflexive voice contains the idea of an action coming back to the person who did the action, i.e. reflecting back to the doer.
pecca so na labhate sukhaṃ.
after death, he does not get happiness for himself
after death, he does not personally get happiness
after death, he himself does not get happiness
after death, he gets no happiness.
Please note! The Reflexive Voice is also sometimes used just for the sake of the meter of the verse, so you must judge for yourself when to apply the reflexive meaning - sometimes it will not make sense!