Passive Voice in the German Present

In Brief

German forms the present passive with a present-tense form of werden plus the past participle: Das Buch wird gelesen (“The book is read/is being read”). The person or thing affected becomes the grammatical subject, while the agent can be omitted or added with von + dative. Keep the participle at the end of a main clause.

Overview

The passive voice describes an event from the perspective of the person or thing affected. Compare active Die Mechanikerin repariert das Auto (“The mechanic repairs the car”) with passive Das Auto wird repariert (“The car is being repaired”). The active sentence focuses on the mechanic; the passive sentence focuses on the car and the repair. This is useful when the agent is unknown, obvious, unimportant, or deliberately left unnamed.

At B1, the essential pattern is werden + Partizip II. A Partizip II is a past participle—a verb form such as gemacht, gelesen, or repariert. Although this same form appears in the perfect tense, here it combines with werden, not haben or sein. You therefore need to recognize and form German past participles before building passive sentences.

English often uses “be + past participle,” but the match is not exact. German Das Essen wird vorbereitet can mean either “The food is prepared” as a process or “The food is being prepared.” German does not need a separate continuous form. Context tells you whether the process is happening right now, happens regularly, or is described as a general procedure.

How It Works

The core pattern

The present process passive (Vorgangspassiv) has two parts:

subject + present tense of werden + other information + past participle

• Die Tür wird jeden Abend geschlossen. — The door is closed every evening.
• Die Formulare werden gerade geprüft. — The forms are being checked now.

The conjugated form of werden agrees with the new subject. The past participle does not change for gender, number, or case.

Person	Present form of werden	Passive example	English
ich	werde	Ich werde gefragt.	I am being asked.
du	wirst	Du wirst gefragt.	You are being asked.
er/sie/es	wird	Sie wird gefragt.	She is being asked.
wir	werden	Wir werden gefragt.	We are being asked.
ihr	werdet	Ihr werdet gefragt.	You are being asked.
sie/Sie	werden	Sie werden gefragt.	They/You are being asked.

Do not confuse werden here with its other jobs. On its own, it can mean “become”: Es wird kalt (“It is getting cold”). With an infinitive, it can mark the future: Er wird anrufen (“He will call”). In the passive, it is followed by a past participle: Er wird angerufen (“He is being called”).

Turning an active sentence into a passive one

Start with an active sentence:

Die Firma liefert die Pakete heute. — The company delivers the parcels today.

1. Find the direct object—the person or thing directly affected by the action: die Pakete.
2. Make it the passive subject: Die Pakete. In grammatical terms, it changes from accusative case to nominative case; case means the form that shows a word’s job in the sentence.
3. Conjugate werden to agree with that subject: plural werden.
4. Move the lexical verb—the verb carrying the main meaning—to its past participle form at the end: geliefert.
5. Omit the original agent or add it with von: Die Pakete werden heute (von der Firma) geliefert.

Notice that only a direct object normally becomes the subject. Other objects retain their case:

• Active: Die Ärztin erklärt dem Patienten die Behandlung.
• Passive: Die Behandlung wird dem Patienten erklärt.

Dem Patienten remains dative because it still means “to the patient.” The dative is the case commonly used for a recipient or beneficiary.

Agents with von and causes with durch

Use von + dative for the agent—the person, group, institution, or force presented as carrying out the action:

• Der Roman wird von einer jungen Autorin geschrieben.
• Die Entscheidung wird vom Gericht überprüft. (vom = von dem)

Use durch + accusative when emphasizing a means, method, intermediary, or cause through which something happens:

• Die Daten werden durch ein Passwort geschützt.
• Der Flug wird durch den Sturm verzögert.

The distinction is about viewpoint, not merely whether the noun is human. Von der Polizei presents the police as the acting authority; durch eine automatische Kontrolle presents the check as the means. In many passive sentences neither phrase is needed.

Word order

In a statement, conjugated werden occupies the usual second position and the participle goes to the end:

• Die Rechnung wird morgen bezahlt.
• Morgen wird die Rechnung bezahlt.

In a yes/no question, werden comes first:

• Wird die Rechnung heute bezahlt?

In a subordinate clause—a clause introduced by a word such as weil (“because”) or dass (“that”)—both verb parts move to the end, with the participle before werden:

• Ich weiß, dass die Rechnung heute bezahlt wird.
• Wir warten, weil die Straße noch gesperrt wird.

Negation

The position of nicht depends on what is being denied. To negate the event as a whole, it commonly appears before the final participle:

• Die E-Mail wird heute nicht beantwortet. — The email will not be/is not being answered today.

To contrast one detail, place nicht before that detail:

• Die E-Mail wird nicht heute, sondern morgen beantwortet. — The email is answered not today but tomorrow.

Use kein to negate an indefinite noun:

• Es wird kein Eintritt verlangt. — No admission fee is required.

Passive with modal verbs

A modal verb such as müssen, können, or dürfen can combine with a passive infinitive. The modal is conjugated; werden remains an infinitive at the end, after the participle:

subject + modal verb + … + past participle + werden

• Der Antrag muss heute unterschrieben werden. — The application must be signed today.
• Die Datei kann nicht geöffnet werden. — The file cannot be opened.

This pattern is extremely common in instructions, rules, and workplace language.

Examples in Context

German	English	Note
Das Buch wird gelesen.	The book is being read.	Singular subject: wird
Die Tür wird geöffnet.	The door is being opened.	Regular participle without ge- because öffnen has the inseparable prefix er-
Er wird von allen gemocht.	He is liked by everyone.	Agent with von + dative
Die Pakete werden jeden Morgen abgeholt.	The parcels are collected every morning.	Plural subject: werden; separable-verb participle
Heute wird das neue Café eröffnet.	The new café is opening today.	Time expression occupies first position
Die Ergebnisse werden morgen veröffentlicht.	The results will be published tomorrow.	Present passive can refer to a scheduled future event
Wird hier auch Englisch gesprochen?	Is English spoken here too?	Yes/no question
Ich sehe, dass die Straße repariert wird.	I can see that the road is being repaired.	Subordinate-clause order: repariert wird
Die Rechnung wird nicht per Post geschickt.	The invoice is not sent by post.	Negated means of delivery
Das Gebäude wird durch Kameras überwacht.	The building is monitored by cameras.	durch presents the means
Der Patient wird von einer Spezialistin untersucht.	The patient is examined by a specialist.	Human agent with von
Die Geräte müssen regelmäßig gereinigt werden.	The devices must be cleaned regularly.	Passive with a modal verb
Den Gästen wird sofort geholfen.	The guests are helped immediately.	Impersonal passive; dative remains dative
Es wird viel getanzt.	There is a lot of dancing.	Impersonal passive of an intransitive verb

Common Mistakes

Using sein for an action in progress

• Wrong: Die Tür ist gerade geöffnet. (if someone is opening it now)
• Right: Die Tür wird gerade geöffnet.
• Why: Werden + participle presents the action or process. Sein + participle usually presents the resulting state: Die Tür ist geöffnet means “The door is open.” English “is opened” can hide this distinction, so decide whether you mean an event or a state.

Leaving the main verb as an infinitive

• Wrong: Das Auto wird reparieren.
• Right: Das Auto wird repariert.
• Why: The passive requires the past participle repariert. Wird reparieren instead looks like a future active construction: “will repair,” and it lacks an active subject that could perform the repair.

Using the wrong form of werden

• Wrong: Die Dokumente wird geprüft.
• Right: Die Dokumente werden geprüft.
• Why: Werden agrees with the passive subject. A plural subject takes werden, while a singular third-person subject takes wird.

Keeping the former direct object in the accusative

• Wrong: Den Vertrag wird unterschrieben.
• Right: Der Vertrag wird unterschrieben.
• Why: The former direct object becomes the nominative subject. This change is especially visible with masculine nouns: accusative den Vertrag becomes nominative der Vertrag.

Using von with the wrong case

• Wrong: Das Bild wird von der Künstler gemalt.
• Right: Das Bild wird von dem Künstler gemalt. / Das Bild wird vom Künstler gemalt.
• Why: Von always takes the dative. Masculine der Künstler therefore becomes dem Künstler, commonly contracted to vom Künstler.

Putting werden before the participle in a subordinate clause

• Wrong: …, weil die Straße wird repariert.
• Right: …, weil die Straße repariert wird.
• Why: In a subordinate clause, the verb cluster comes at the end. The participle precedes the conjugated auxiliary: repariert wird.

Usage Notes

Passive sentences are common in news, administration, academic writing, technical instructions, and formal announcements because those contexts often prioritize a procedure or result over the person responsible. Die Anträge werden geprüft is neutral and process-focused; naming every employee who checks them would add little. The modal passive is particularly frequent in rules: Handys müssen ausgeschaltet werden (“Phones must be switched off”).

Everyday German also uses the passive, but speakers often choose an active alternative when the agent matters. They may use man, an indefinite pronoun roughly meaning “people,” “they,” or “you in general”: Man repariert gerade die Straße instead of Die Straße wird gerade repariert. The man sentence keeps an unspecified human agent in view; the passive puts the street and the work in view.

The German present tense can describe present, habitual, and scheduled future events. The passive inherits this flexibility:

• Die Post wird täglich um zehn Uhr abgeholt. — habitual
• Die Post wird gerade abgeholt. — happening now
• Die Post wird morgen abgeholt. — scheduled future

Words such as gerade, jeden Tag, and morgen supply the time frame. Do not assume that every wird + participle sentence translates with English “is being.”

Some verbs resist a natural personal passive. Verbs whose accusative object is not truly affected may sound awkward when mechanically transformed. In practice, learn passive constructions from real examples rather than assuming that every English passive has an equally natural German passive.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Impersonal passive

German can form a passive even when there is no accusative object available to become the subject. This is called an impersonal passive, meaning a passive sentence without an ordinary nominative subject:

• Es wird getanzt. — There is dancing / People are dancing.
• Den Verletzten wird geholfen. — The injured people are being helped.
• Über das Problem wird diskutiert. — The problem is being discussed.

Here es may fill the first position, but it is a grammatical placeholder rather than a participant in the action. If another element comes first, es disappears:

• Es wird heute lange gearbeitet.
• Heute wird lange gearbeitet.

Because there is no nominative subject controlling agreement, the auxiliary remains singular wird. Dative objects and prepositional phrases keep their forms: den Verletzten remains dative, and über das Problem retains its preposition.

An impersonal passive generally describes intentional activity. It works naturally with arbeiten, tanzen, diskutieren, and similar verbs, but not freely with every intransitive verb. A sentence such as Es wird gestorben exists, yet it is stylistically marked and used in particular contexts rather than as a neutral everyday equivalent of “people die.”

Process passive versus stative passive

The process passive with werden answers “What is happening?” The stative passive (Zustandspassiv) with sein answers “What state is something in?”

Process with werden	State with sein	Difference
Das Fenster wird geschlossen.	Das Fenster ist geschlossen.	Someone is closing it / it is closed.
Das Licht wird ausgeschaltet.	Das Licht ist ausgeschaltet.	The switching-off happens / the light is off.
Der Tisch wird gedeckt.	Der Tisch ist gedeckt.	The table is being set / the table is set.

The stative reading is not always possible or useful: an action must produce a meaningful resulting state. This distinction deserves separate study because English often uses “be” for both event and state.

Passive alternatives with man and sich lassen

German has several ways to avoid naming an agent. Besides active man, sich lassen + infinitive often expresses possibility:

• Die Datei kann leicht geöffnet werden. — The file can be opened easily.
• Die Datei lässt sich leicht öffnen. — The file is easy to open / can easily be opened.

The second version is often smoother and less bureaucratic. Another formal alternative is sein + zu + infinitive: Die Regeln sind zu beachten (“The rules must be observed”). Recognize these as related meanings, but do not treat them as identical in every context.

Looking ahead to the past passive

The same process can be placed in other tenses. The simple past uses wurde/wurden: Die Tür wurde geöffnet. The perfect passive uses ist/sind + participle + worden: Die Tür ist geöffnet worden. Note the special form worden, not geworden, in the perfect passive. These patterns belong to the past passive, but recognizing their connection makes the present system easier to extend.

Practice Tips

1. Transform short active sentences in stages. Underline the accusative object, make it nominative, choose the matching form of werden, and move the participle to the end. Then decide whether the original agent is worth adding with von.
2. Build process–state pairs. Say Die Tür wird geöffnet and then Die Tür ist geöffnet. Doing this with schließen, reparieren, vorbereiten, and ausschalten trains the important distinction between an action and its result.
3. Collect passive sentences by setting. Look at German instructions, transport notices, or news headlines. Mark werden, the final participle, and any von or durch phrase. Also note active alternatives with man so you learn when German writers actually prefer the passive.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Past Participle Formation — supplies forms such as gelesen, geöffnet, and repariert.
• Next step: Passive Voice (Past) — extends the process passive with wurde and ist … worden.
• Contrast: Stative Passive (sein-Passive) — describes the resulting state rather than the action in progress.