B2 · The passive
The passive in every tense
wird gebaut, wurde gebaut, ist gebaut worden
werden carries the tense, the participle never changes, and the perfect uses worden rather than geworden.
At a glance
- Remember
- worden only ever belongs to a passive; geworden never does.
- Form
- ich werde gewähltI am elected
- Signal words
- wird
- wurde
- worden
- werden
- von
- durch
- Trap
- Wrong:Das Haus ist gebaut geworden.Right:Das Haus ist gebaut worden.
Your turn
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Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
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 elected | ich werde gewählt |
| you are elected (informal) | du wirst gewählt |
| he, she, it is elected | er, sie, es wird gewählt |
| we are elected | wir werden gewählt |
| you are elected (plural) | ihr werdet gewählt |
| they, you (formal) are elected | sie, Sie werden gewählt |
| I was elected | ich wurde gewählt |
| you were elected (informal) | du wurdest gewählt |
| he, she, it was elected | er, sie, es wurde gewählt |
| we were elected | wir wurden gewählt |
| you were elected (plural) | ihr wurdet gewählt |
| they, you (formal) were elected | sie, Sie wurden gewählt |
| I have been elected | ich bin gewählt worden |
| you have been elected (informal) | du bist gewählt worden |
| he, she, it has been elected | er, sie, es ist gewählt worden |
| we have been elected | wir sind gewählt worden |
| you have been elected (plural) | ihr seid gewählt worden |
| they, you (formal) have been elected | sie, Sie sind gewählt worden |
| I had been elected | ich war gewählt worden |
| you had been elected (informal) | du warst gewählt worden |
| he, she, it had been elected | er, sie, es war gewählt worden |
| we had been elected | wir waren gewählt worden |
| you had been elected (plural) | ihr wart gewählt worden |
| they, you (formal) had been elected | sie, Sie waren gewählt worden |
| I will be elected | ich werde gewählt werden |
| you will be elected (informal) | du wirst gewählt werden |
| he, she, it will be elected | er, sie, es wird gewählt werden |
| we will be elected | wir werden gewählt werden |
| you will be elected (plural) | ihr werdet gewählt werden |
| they, you (formal) will be elected | sie, Sie werden gewählt werden |
| present | Das Haus wird gebaut. |
| simple past | Das Haus wurde gebaut. |
| perfect | Das Haus ist gebaut worden. |
| past perfect | Das Haus war gebaut worden. |
| future | Das Haus wird gebaut werden. |
| with a modal verb | Das Haus muss gebaut werden. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
werden carries the tense; the participle never changes.
Der Brief wurde geschrieben.The letter was written.
The perfect passive uses worden, not geworden.
Der Brief ist geschrieben worden.The letter has been written.
The passive perfect always takes sein, never haben.
Die Tür ist geöffnet worden.The door has been opened.
With a modal, the passive infinitive stands at the end.
Das kann repariert werden.That can be repaired.
Example sentences
Die Straße wird gesperrt.The road is being closed.
Das Auto wurde gestohlen.The car was stolen.
Der Vertrag ist unterschrieben worden.The contract has been signed.
Alles war schon entschieden worden.Everything had already been decided.
Die Arbeit muss heute erledigt werden.The work has to be done today.
6 more example sentences
Hier wird gearbeitet.Work is going on here.
Der Antrag wurde abgelehnt.The application was rejected.
Uns ist nichts gesagt worden.We were not told anything.
Das Problem war längst erkannt worden.The problem had long since been recognised.
Der Termin kann verschoben werden.The appointment can be moved.
Die Tür musste aufgebrochen werden.The door had to be forced.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The prefix ge- drops off werden in the passive perfect, and nowhere else. The short form is in fact the older one — German once had several participles without ge- — and it survived in the auxiliary, which always stands right after another participle. The result is a word that appears in exactly one construction — so seeing worden anywhere is a guarantee that a process passive is being read.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The process passive is built from werden plus a past participle, and it exists in every tense German has. All the work is done by werden: it is the part that changes, while the participle stands unaltered from the present to the past perfect.
The one form that has to be learned separately is the perfect. Werden as a full verb has the participle geworden — Er ist Arzt geworden — but as a passive auxiliary it loses the prefix and becomes worden: Das Haus ist gebaut worden. Two participles stand at the end of the sentence, in that order.
A modal verb can sit on top of the whole thing, and then the passive infinitive gebaut werden goes to the end: Das Haus muss gebaut werden. This stack of three verbs at the end of a clause is what makes formal German notoriously hard to follow, and it is entirely regular.
A closer look
Reading the end of a long sentence
German pushes verbs to the end, and the passive stacks them. Die Unterlagen hätten längst geprüft werden müssen ends with three verb forms, and they are read from right to left: müssenis the modalwerdenmakes it passivegeprüftis what was to happen
That order is fixed and it is worth practising on purpose, because official German writes like this constantly. Once the pattern is recognised, the sentence is no harder than its English equivalent — the difficulty is entirely in the position, not in the grammar.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the future passive is meant
then German normally says it with the present instead.
Das Haus wird nächstes Jahr gebaut.The house will be built next year.
Why? Das Haus wird gebaut werden is correct and almost never said; the present already carries the future when a time word is present.
Exception
When the agent is named
then a person takes von, a cause takes durch.
Die Stadt wurde durch ein Feuer zerstört.The city was destroyed by a fire.
Why? The distinction is between who did it and what brought it about.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
A passive without a subject
German can make a passive out of a verb that has no object at all: Hier wird nicht geraucht, Es wird getanzt. There is nothing being acted upon, so the sentence has no grammatical subject and es appears only when the first position would otherwise be empty. English cannot do this and has to say "there is no smoking here".
Worth knowing
The tense you will actually meet
Written German uses the wurde form far more than the perfect, because the passive belongs to reports, minutes and news, which prefer the simple past throughout. Spoken German, which avoids the simple past elsewhere, keeps it here too.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: werden · sein · schreiben · können · müssen · entscheiden · sperren · unterschreiben