Quick Guide to the German Passive.
The german passive can be a lot to get your head around, at least it was for me! But hopefully this little guide will help you on your way. :)
Active vs Passive
an example of the active would be...
I am doing the work.
Ich mache die Arbeit.
Whereas the Passive would be...
The work is being done.
Die Arbeit wird gemacht.
The difference is the active sentence has an active subject that is doing the action, whereas the passive sentences subject is having the action done to it. This also means the doer of the action doesn’t need to be mentioned (this can be great if you want to avoid pointing fingers!). If however you want to say who or what did the action then 3 prepositions are usually used.
von + dative = by
e.g. Die Arbeit wird von mir gemacht
durch + accusative = by, however conveys the means by which something was done.
e.g. Das Haus wird durch einen Tornado zerstört.
mit + dative = by, however implies that the thing that’s doing the action is less actively involved.
e.g. Das Plakat wird mit bloß Klebstoff an der Wand geklebt.
Forming the passive.
The German passive is used mainly in 6 tenses, most of which use the verb werden in some form and all of which need a past participle.
Below is a short summary of how to form them with examples...
Present Passive = Present tense of werden + past participle
e.g. die Arbeit wird gemacht = the work is being done
Past Passive = Past tense of werden + past participle
e.g. die Arbeit wurde gemacht. = the work was done
Perfect passive = Present tense of sein + past participle + worden
e.g. die Arbeit ist gemacht worden. = the work has been done
Pluperfect passive = Past tense of sein + past participle + worden
e.g. die Arbeit war gemacht worden. = the work had been done
Future Passive = Present tense of werden + past participle + werden
e.g. die Arbeit wird gemacht werden = the work will be done
Future Perfect Passive = Present tense of werden + past participle + worden sein
e.g. die Arbeit wird gemacht worden sein. = the work will have been done
There are other ways of forming the german passive but I think that’s needs to be saved for another lesson.
I hope you liked this, this is my first attempt at doing anything like this so sorry if it’s not great. If you have any questions please ask, also if you notice any mistakes please let me know. :)
