B2 · The passive
Impersonal passive: es wird
Hier wird nicht geraucht.
German can build a passive out of a verb with no object at all — and English cannot.
At a glance
- Remember
- No object, no subject — only the activity.
- Form
- es wird getanztthere is dancing (present)
- Signal words
- es wird
- hier wird
- wird
- worden
- man
- Trap
- Wrong:Hier wird es nicht geraucht. — Es wird geraucht nicht.Right:Hier wird nicht geraucht.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in German. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker auxiliary verb negation
| there is dancing (present) | es wird getanzt |
| there was dancing (simple past) | es wurde getanzt |
| there has been dancing (perfect) | es ist getanzt worden |
| with es | Es wird getanzt. |
| without es | Heute wird getanzt. |
| negated | Hier wird nicht geraucht. |
| with a modal verb | Hier muss leise gesprochen werden. |
| as an instruction | Jetzt wird geschlafen! |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
A verb with no object can still form a passive.
Hier wird gearbeitet.Work is going on here.
The sentence has no subject at all.
Es wird viel geredet.There is a lot of talk.
es appears only to fill the first position and vanishes otherwise.
Am Freitag wird gefeiert.There will be a party on Friday.
A modal verb can stand on top of it.
Hier darf nicht geparkt werden.Parking is not allowed here.
Example sentences
Hier wird nicht geraucht.No smoking here.
Bei uns wird um acht gegessen.We eat at eight.
Es wurde lange diskutiert.There was a long discussion.
Sonntags wird nicht gearbeitet.Nobody works on Sundays.
Jetzt wird aufgeräumt!Time to tidy up!
6 more example sentences
Es wird gleich angefangen.We are starting in a moment.
In der Bibliothek wird nicht gesprochen.There is no talking in the library.
Gestern wurde bis spät gefeiert.The party went on late yesterday.
In dieser Familie wird viel gelacht.There is a lot of laughter in this family.
Es muss noch viel geübt werden.A lot of practice is still needed.
Bei Rot wird gehalten.You stop at red.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The construction has no subject to move around, so the ordinary word-order rules do all the work: the participle stands last, nicht goes directly in front of it, and whatever comes first pushes the es out. Treating the es as a real subject that has to stay is what produces the first error.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
An ordinary passive turns an object into a subject: Man baut das Haus → Das Haus wird gebaut. German can also build a passive from a verb that has no object whatever: Hier wird nicht geraucht, Es wird getanzt, Am Sonntag wird gearbeitet.
There is nothing for the subject position to hold, so the sentence simply has no subject. Es appears only when the first position would otherwise be empty, and it disappears as soon as anything else moves in: Es wird getanzt becomes Heute wird getanzt.
What it does is describe an activity without saying who is doing it — not "smoking is forbidden" but "smoking does not happen here". It is the register of signs, house rules and announcements, and English has no direct equivalent, so it has to be translated rather than mapped.
A closer look
How to translate it
English needs a different structure each time. Hier wird nicht geraucht becomes "no smoking here" or "we do not smoke here"; Es wurde viel gelacht becomes "there was a lot of laughter"; Jetzt wird geschlafen becomes "time to go to sleep". The German is one construction and the English is three.
That is worth knowing in both directions. Translating an English "there is" sentence into German often lands on this passive rather than on es gibt, and choosing between them is a matter of whether an activity or a thing is being reported.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the verb describes a state rather than an activity
then no impersonal passive is possible.
Hier wird gebaut, aber nicht: hier wird gewohnt.Building is going on here.
Why? The construction reports something being done: "es wird gewohnt" is not German.
Exception
When the sentence is an instruction
then the tone is markedly firm.
Jetzt wird gegessen!We are eating now, and that is that.
Why? Removing the person makes the demand impersonal and therefore harder to argue with.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
man does almost the same job
Man raucht hier nicht and Hier wird nicht geraucht both avoid naming anybody. The difference is tone: man describes what people generally do, the impersonal passive states a rule. A sign uses the second one.
Worth knowing
It is why German notices sound absolute
A German sign says Hier wird nicht geparkt where an English one says "please do not park here". The construction has nobody in it to address and nobody to appeal to, which is exactly the effect intended — and worth knowing before reading it as rudeness.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: werden · arbeiten · essen · dürfen · wohnen · reden