Developmental psychology

One entry on this list is met almost only in the passive, and the passive is where learners slip. A child whose school start is put off by a year wird zurückgestellt, and afterwards ist zurückgestellt worden — never geworden. The rule is easy once it has been seen: werden has two past participles for its two jobs. As a verb in its own right, meaning to become, it keeps the prefix: Sie ist inzwischen schulfähig geworden. As the auxiliary that builds the passive it sheds it: Er ist zurückgestellt worden. So two sentences a parent might say in the same week look almost identical and report opposite news, and a single syllable tells them apart. The test is quick: if another participle already stands in front of it, the short form is the right one. The verb itself is separable in the present — die Schule stellt ihn zurück — like most verbs built on zurück.