nietpassieve

Nietpassieve is a term used in Dutch grammar to describe sentences that are not in the passive voice. It is mainly employed to contrast with passieve constructions, where the object of the action becomes the syntactic subject and the agent may be omitted or introduced by a prepositional phrase such as door. In everyday use, nietpassieve corresponds largely to the active voice, where the subject performs the action.

In Dutch, non-passive (niet-passieve) sentences typically follow a subject–verb–object (S-V-O) order. The agent is explicit and the action is attributed directly to the subject. For example: De docent leest een boek. Here the subject (de docent) performs the action (leest) on the object (een boek). This stands in contrast with passive constructions like Het boek wordt gelezen door de docent, where the patient is foregrounded as the subject and the agent may be optional.

Nietpassieve also covers non-passive forms that do not realize a passive structure, such as imperatives or certain interrogatives. For instance: Open het boek. Leest de student het boek? These forms do not involve the passive auxiliary en zijn en do not demote the object to the subject position.

In linguistic description, nietpassieve is a practical label for all sentences that are not formed with a passive construction. It helps distinguish active and other non-passive constructions from true passive sentences. The concept is primarily relevant for grammar education and cross-linguistic syntax discussions, where passive voice and non-passive forms are contrasted. See also: passieve zin, actieve stem, Nederlandse grammatica.