Voice: voice
| Values: | Act | Cau | CauCau | Mid | Pass |
Voice is a feature of verbs in Pāli.
Act: active voice
In Pāli, the active voice is traditionally called parassapada (“a word for another”). The subject of the verb is the doer of the action (agent), and the object (in accusative) is typically affected by the action (patient).
Examples
- Dāso odanaṃ pacati “The servant cooks the rice.”
- Tassa etad ahosi “This occurred to him.”
- Na vatthaṁ ratanaṁ makkheti “The cloth doesn’t smear the jewel.”
- Buddho loke udapādi “A Buddha arose in the world.”
Mid: middle voice
In Pāli, the middle voice is traditionally called attanopada (“a word for one’s self”). It signifies an action performed by the subject reflexively: that is, for their own benefit.
Examples
- Jāyate “He is born”
- So jiyyetha “He may, himself, grow old.”
- Pecca so labhate sukhaṁ “After death, he obtains for himself happiness.”
Pass: passive voice
The passive voice indicates that the subject of the verb is affected by the action (patient). In Pāli, the passive base is generally formed by adding the suffix -ya- or -īya- to the verbal root, and the agent of the action (if present) is typically put in the Instrumental case.
Examples
- Cittaṃ vimucci “The mind was freed.”
- Odano paccati “The rice is cooking.” (Passive -cya- = -cca- lets us know that the rice is being cooked, not doing the cooking!)
Cau: causative voice
The causative voice is used to mean that the subject of the sentence caused someone else to do the action. In Pāli, causatives are formed by adding the causative infixes (-e-, -aya-, -āpe-, or -āpaya-) after the verbal root.
Examples
- Sapathañca maṁ kāresi “She made me swear an oath.”
- Te Vipassī Bhagavā dhammiyā kathāya sandassesi “The Blessed One Vipassī caused them to see accordingly by speaking about the Dhamma.”
CauCau: double causative voice
Pāli exhibits a distinct double causative voice where some causative verbs have come to mean actions that you can have someone else do.
It is constructed by attaching a second causative infix (typically -āpe-) to a verb base that is already in a causative form (typically with -e-). It denotes an action where a first party causes a second party to get a third party to do something.
Examples
- ropāpeti “has [someone] plant [a plant]” (From √ruh “to grow” → causative ropeti “causes to grow / plants” → double causative ropāpeti = “gets someone to plant”).
- kārāpeti “causes to get (something) done” (From karoti “to do” → causative kāreti “has [something] done [by another]” → double causative kārāpeti “causes [someone] to have [something] done”).
- Rājaputto ca purohitaputto ca yānāni yojāpetvā yānehi niyyiṁsu “The prince and the high priest’s son, having had the carriages yolked, set out by carriage.” (yuñjati “joins” → yojeti “causes to join = harnesses” → yojāpeti “causes [others] to harness”)
Voice in other languages: [abq] [am] [arr] [axm] [az] [bej] [bg] [bor] [ceb] [cs] [ctn] [el] [eme] [en] [fi] [fr] [gn] [gor] [gub] [ha] [hu] [hy] [jaa] [ka] [kbc] [ky] [myu] [naq] [oge] [ota] [pay] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [ruc] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl] [xmf]