B2 · The passive
Passive with sein
a state, not an event
sein plus a participle describes how things are — and English writes it the same way as the other one.
At a glance
- Remember
- sein for how it is, werden for what is happening.
- Form
- ich bin informiertI am informed
- Signal words
- ist
- war
- geschlossen
- geöffnet
- kaputt
- fertig
- erledigt
- Trap
- Wrong:Der Laden wird sonntags geschlossen. (opening hours)Right:Der Laden ist sonntags geschlossen.
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 informed | ich bin informiert |
| you are informed (informal) | du bist informiert |
| he, she, it is informed | er, sie, es ist informiert |
| we are informed | wir sind informiert |
| you are informed (plural) | ihr seid informiert |
| they, you (formal) are informed | sie, Sie sind informiert |
| I was informed | ich war informiert |
| you were informed (informal) | du warst informiert |
| he, she, it was informed | er, sie, es war informiert |
| we were informed | wir waren informiert |
| you were informed (plural) | ihr wart informiert |
| they, you (formal) were informed | sie, Sie waren informiert |
| state | Der Laden ist geschlossen. |
| process | Der Laden wird geschlossen. |
| past state | Der Laden war geschlossen. |
| past process | Der Laden wurde geschlossen. |
| an agent, only with the process passive | von, durch |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
sein plus a participle describes a state.
Die Tür ist abgeschlossen.The door is locked.
werden plus a participle describes a process.
Die Tür wird gerade abgeschlossen.The door is being locked.
A state passive has no agent.
Das Formular ist vollständig ausgefüllt.The form is completely filled in.
Its past is war plus the participle.
Das Museum war schon geschlossen.The museum was already closed.
Example sentences
Das Problem ist gelöst.The problem is solved.
Die Formulare sind unterschrieben.The forms are signed.
Der Termin war schon vergeben.The appointment had already been taken.
Alle Plätze sind besetzt.All the seats are taken.
Die Arbeit ist erledigt.The work is done.
8 more example sentences
Die Rechnung ist bezahlt.The bill is paid.
Der Antrag ist bewilligt.The application has been approved.
Das Zimmer war nicht aufgeräumt.The room had not been tidied.
Alles ist vorbereitet.Everything is ready.
Die Stelle ist inzwischen besetzt.The position has since been filled.
Der Vertrag ist gekündigt.The contract has been terminated.
Die Fenster sind geputzt.The windows are clean.
Der Fehler ist behoben.The fault has been fixed.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The wrong sentence is correct German and says that every Sunday somebody comes and shuts the shop — a repeated action rather than a standing state. Nothing corrects it, because both are real sentences; the listener simply hears the other one. Opening hours, notices and descriptions of how things stand all take sein.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Sein plus a participle describes the state that results from an action, not the action itself. Der Laden ist geschlossen says the shop is shut; der Laden wird geschlossen says somebody is shutting it. English writes both as "is closed" and leaves the context to decide.
The state passive has no agent, because there is nothing happening for anybody to be doing. If von or durch appears, the sentence is a process passive and werden belongs there instead. That is a useful test when writing.
Its past is war plus the participle: der Laden war geschlossen. A perfect exists (ist geschlossen gewesen) but is rare outside speech, because a state that has ended is simply described in the past.
A closer look
Why English cannot tell them apart
English uses "be" for both and relies on aspect and context: "the shop is closed" is a state, "the shop is being closed" is a process. That works, but it needs the progressive, which German does not have — so German had to solve the same problem with a different auxiliary instead.
The result is that German is more precise here and English more economical. A German writer must decide which one they mean before writing the sentence; an English writer can leave it open. For a learner that means the decision cannot be postponed, and the fastest test is whether anybody is doing anything at that moment.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the participle has become an ordinary adjective
then the construction is no longer a passive at all: er ist verliebt, sie ist begeistert.
Sie war sehr begeistert von dem Konzert.She was very enthusiastic about the concert.
Why? Some participles drifted into the adjective system and take comparatives, which no passive does.
Exception
When the verb has no object to act on
then there is no state passive, only the process one: es wird getanzt.
Heute Abend wird getanzt.There is dancing this evening.
Why? A state passive describes the object after the action, and without an object there is nothing to describe.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
It is how German says "done"
A great many everyday reports of finished work are state passives: ist erledigt, ist fertig, ist bezahlt, ist abgeschickt. They are short, they need no subject beyond the thing itself, and they are what a German colleague writes back when something is done.
Ist erledigt.Done.
Worth knowing
The two passives take different pasts
The process passive uses wurde for the simple past and ist ... worden for the perfect. The state passive uses war, and its rare perfect is ist … gewesen. If a sentence contains worden it is a process passive, full stop — the word appears nowhere else in German.
Das Haus ist renoviert worden und ist jetzt bewohnbar.The house has been renovated and is now habitable.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: sein · werden · lösen · unterschreiben · erledigen · abschließen · vergeben