Reference · module 22
When nobody is named
Everything this module explains, on one page.
wird gemacht
Say what is done without saying who does it.
- The passive is werden plus the participle you already use for the Perfekt: Das Haus wird gebaut. The house is being built.
- What was the object becomes the subject. Man baut das Haus turns into Das Haus wird gebaut, and the builder disappears.
- German uses it constantly in notices, recipes and instructions, where who does it is either obvious or nobody's business: Hier wird nicht geraucht.
The mistake you are about to make
Das Haus ist gebaut.
Das Haus wird gebaut.
English builds the passive with "to be" — the house is built — so sein looks like the match. German uses werden for the action; ist gebaut is the finished state.
The passive in the past
Say what was done, not only what is being done.
- The past passive uses wurde: Das Haus wurde gebaut. It is the written past of werden and it is the form you will read most.
- The spoken version is ist gebaut worden — with worden, not geworden. That missing ge- is the one detail worth remembering.
- If the doer must be named, von is for a person and durch for a cause: von einem Architekten gebaut, durch das Feuer zerstört.
The mistake you are about to make
Das Haus wurde durch einen Architekten gebaut.
Das Haus wurde von einem Architekten gebaut.
English "by" does both jobs — by an architect, by the fire. German splits them: von for the person who did it, durch for the cause that brought it about.
Ways around the passive
Say the same thing three ways and pick the one that fits.
- man is the everyday alternative: Man baut hier ein Haus says what Hier wird ein Haus gebaut says, in speech rather than in print.
- sich lassen means can be done: Das lässt sich reparieren. Short, common, and it sounds far more natural than the full passive.
- sein plus zu plus infinitive is the formal one: Das Formular ist auszufüllen. You will meet it on every official piece of paper.
The mistake you are about to make
Das Formular ist zu ausfüllen.
Das Formular ist auszufüllen.
English has nowhere to put an infinitive marker except in front, so zu ausfüllen looks right. In a separable verb the zu goes inside: auszufüllen.
Following instructions
Read a recipe or a manual without stopping at every line.
- A recipe uses either the passive or the infinitive alone: Die Zwiebeln werden geschnitten, or simply Zwiebeln schneiden. Both are normal in print.
- A manual prefers the formal imperative: Drücken Sie die Taste. Notice it is the Sie form, because a manual does not know you.
The mistake you are about to make
Zwiebeln zu schneiden.
Zwiebeln schneiden.
An English recipe gives orders — chop the onions. German prints the bare infinitive at the end of the line instead: Zwiebeln schneiden, no zu and no Sie.