B1 · The passive
Passive with werden
something is being done
The process, not the result — and the agent usually left out on purpose.
At a glance
- Remember
- werden for the process, sein for the result.
- Form
- ich werde eingeladenI am invited
- Signal words
- wird
- wurde
- worden
- von
- durch
- werden
- Trap
- Wrong:Das Haus ist gebaut.Right:Das Haus wird gebaut.
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
| I am invited | ich werde eingeladen |
| you are invited (informal) | du wirst eingeladen |
| he, she, it is invited | er, sie, es wird eingeladen |
| we are invited | wir werden eingeladen |
| you are invited (plural) | ihr werdet eingeladen |
| they, you (formal) are invited | sie, Sie werden eingeladen |
| I was invited | ich wurde eingeladen |
| you were invited (informal) | du wurdest eingeladen |
| he, she, it was invited | er, sie, es wurde eingeladen |
| we were invited | wir wurden eingeladen |
| you were invited (plural) | ihr wurdet eingeladen |
| they, you (formal) were invited | sie, Sie wurden eingeladen |
| I have been invited | ich bin eingeladen worden |
| you have been invited (informal) | du bist eingeladen worden |
| he, she, it has been invited | er, sie, es ist eingeladen worden |
| we have been invited | wir sind eingeladen worden |
| you have been invited (plural) | ihr seid eingeladen worden |
| they, you (formal) have been invited | sie, Sie sind eingeladen worden |
| present | Das Haus wird gebaut. |
| past | Das Haus wurde gebaut. |
| perfect | Das Haus ist gebaut worden. |
| with an agent | Der Brief wird von der Chefin unterschrieben. |
| with a modal | Das muss heute erledigt werden. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
The passive is werden plus the participle, with the participle at the end.
Die Rechnung wird morgen verschickt.The invoice will be sent tomorrow.
In the perfect the participle of werden is worden, not geworden.
Der Antrag ist schon bearbeitet worden.The application has already been processed.
The agent, if named, takes von plus the dative.
Das Formular wird vom Amt geprüft.The form is checked by the authority.
With a modal, werden goes to the end after the participle.
Das kann heute noch erledigt werden.That can still be dealt with today.
Example sentences
Die Straße wird gerade repariert.The road is being repaired at the moment.
Das Paket wurde gestern zugestellt.The parcel was delivered yesterday.
Hier wird nicht geraucht.There is no smoking here.
Der Termin muss verschoben werden.The appointment has to be moved.
Das Museum ist im Krieg zerstört worden.The museum was destroyed in the war.
8 more example sentences
Die Bewerbungen werden bis Freitag gesichtet.The applications will be reviewed by Friday.
Das Gebäude wird gerade renoviert.The building is being renovated.
Ihm wurde eine Stelle angeboten.He was offered a job.
Die Ergebnisse werden nächste Woche veröffentlicht.The results will be published next week.
Es wird viel darüber gesprochen.A lot is being said about it.
Der Vertrag ist von beiden Seiten unterschrieben worden.The contract has been signed by both sides.
Das Formular muss ausgefüllt werden.The form has to be filled in.
Hier darf nicht geparkt werden.No parking here.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English "is built" is ambiguous and German is not. Wird gebaut is a process — builders are there now. Ist gebaut is a state — the building stands finished. Because both German sentences are correct, nothing signals the mistake; the listener simply hears the other one, and on a building site that is a considerable difference.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The passive is werden conjugated in second position and the participle at the end: Der Brief wird geschrieben. In the past it is wurde, and in the perfect it is ist ... worden — with worden rather than geworden, which is the one irregular detail here.
The point of a passive is that the subject of the active sentence disappears. German uses it heavily in instructions, notices, recipes and official writing for exactly that reason: Hier wird nicht geraucht states a rule without naming anybody. If the agent does need naming, it comes back with von plus the dative.
German can also form a passive from a verb with no object at all, which English cannot: Es wird getanzt, roughly "there is dancing going on". The es is an empty placeholder and disappears the moment anything else takes the first position.
A closer look
Why German notices are passive
German uses the passive far more than English does in notices, instructions and administrative writing — Hier wird nicht geraucht rather than "do not smoke". The effect is impersonal in a specific way: the rule is presented as a fact about the place rather than as an order from one person to another.
For a learner this cuts both ways. Reading German officialdom means reading a great many passives, and writing anything formal in German means using them. But in ordinary conversation the passive is no commoner than in English, and a spoken sentence full of them reads as stiff — which is the same judgement an English editor would make.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the cause is a thing rather than a person
then durch plus the accusative replaces von plus the dative.
Die Stadt wurde durch ein Erdbeben zerstört.The city was destroyed by an earthquake.
Why? German separates the doer from the means, where English uses "by" for both.
Exception
When the verb takes a dative object — helfen, danken, folgen
then there is no subject for the passive, so the dative stays and es or nothing fills the front.
Mir wurde nicht geholfen.I was not helped.
Why? Only an accusative object can become the subject of a passive, and these verbs have none.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
worden, not geworden
In a passive perfect the participle of werden drops its ge-: ist gebaut worden. When werden is the main verb meaning "to become", it keeps it: ist Lehrer geworden. One letter apart, and it is the reliable signal of which of the two constructions you are reading.
Er ist Lehrer geworden, und die Schule ist renoviert worden.He became a teacher, and the school has been renovated.
Worth knowing
The empty es disappears when something else moves in
Es wird getanzt becomes Heute Abend wird getanzt — the es was only holding the first position and goes as soon as anything real takes it. This is a general German habit rather than a passive one, and it explains a good many sentences that seem to have lost their subject.
Heute Abend wird getanzt.There is dancing this evening.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: werden · sein · zerstören · können · müssen · helfen · verschieben · erledigen