Extended Passive in Dutch

Overview

The extended passive (uitgebreid passief) takes your knowledge of the basic passive voice and expands it across all tenses and more complex constructions. At the B1 level, you learned the present and simple past passive with worden and the state passive with zijn. Now at B2, you will master the perfect passive, the past passive, the passive with modal verbs, and the impersonal passive for intransitive verbs.

This is where Dutch passive constructions become truly versatile. You will be able to express ideas like "the house should be repaired," "the letter had already been sent," and "smoking is not allowed here" -- all essential for academic, professional, and formal Dutch.

The extended passive appears frequently in news reports, academic writing, official communications, and legal texts. Being comfortable with these forms is a clear marker of upper-intermediate to advanced Dutch proficiency.

How It Works

Complete Passive Tense Overview

Tense	Active	Passive	Example
Present	maakt	wordt gemaakt	Het wordt gemaakt. (It is being made.)
Simple past	maakte	werd gemaakt	Het werd gemaakt. (It was being made.)
Present perfect	heeft gemaakt	is gemaakt	Het is gemaakt. (It has been made.)
Past perfect	had gemaakt	was gemaakt	Het was gemaakt. (It had been made.)
Future	zal maken	zal gemaakt worden	Het zal gemaakt worden. (It will be made.)
Conditional	zou maken	zou gemaakt worden	Het zou gemaakt worden. (It would be made.)

Present Perfect Passive

Structure: zijn + past participle (+ geworden -- usually omitted)

• Het huis is vorig jaar gebouwd. (The house was built last year.)
• De brief is al verzonden. (The letter has already been sent.)
• De kinderen zijn naar school gebracht. (The children have been taken to school.)

In modern standard Dutch, geworden is dropped: Het is gebouwd (not Het is gebouwd geworden). In Belgian Dutch, geworden is sometimes retained.

Past Perfect Passive

Structure: was/waren + past participle

• Het huis was al verkocht toen we aankwamen. (The house had already been sold when we arrived.)
• De beslissing was al genomen. (The decision had already been made.)

Simple Past Passive (werd/werden)

Structure: werd/werden + past participle

Person	Form
ik/hij/zij/het/u	werd
wij/jullie/zij (pl.)	werden

• De brief werd gisteren verzonden. (The letter was sent yesterday.)
• De huizen werden in 1950 gebouwd. (The houses were built in 1950.)
• Hij werd door iedereen gerespecteerd. (He was respected by everyone.)

Passive with Modal Verbs

Structure: modal verb + past participle + worden

Modal	Example	Translation
moeten	Het moet gerepareerd worden.	It must be repaired.
kunnen	Het kan gedaan worden.	It can be done.
zullen	Het zal besproken worden.	It will be discussed.
mogen	Het mag niet gebruikt worden.	It may not be used.
zou/zouden	Het zou verbeterd moeten worden.	It should be improved.

Complex combinations:

• De auto zou gerepareerd moeten worden. (The car should be repaired.)
• Het had eerder gedaan moeten worden. (It should have been done earlier.)

Impersonal Passive

Dutch can form passives from intransitive verbs using er as a dummy subject. This construction has no direct English equivalent:

• Er wordt hier niet gerookt. (No smoking here. / One does not smoke here.)
• Er werd de hele nacht gedanst. (There was dancing all night.)
• Er kan hier geparkeerd worden. (One can park here.)
• Er wordt hard gewerkt. (People are working hard.)

When another element occupies the first position, er is dropped:

• Hier wordt niet gerookt. (No smoking here.)
• Gisteren werd er veel gelachen. (Yesterday there was a lot of laughing.)

Agent with Door

The agent (who performs the action) is introduced by door (by) in all passive tenses:

• Het boek werd door een beroemde schrijver geschreven. (The book was written by a famous author.)
• De wedstrijd is door Ajax gewonnen. (The match was won by Ajax.)

Passive in Subordinate Clauses

In subordinate clauses, all verbs move to the end:

• ...dat het huis vorig jaar gebouwd is. (...that the house was built last year.)
• ...omdat de brief gisteren verzonden werd. (...because the letter was sent yesterday.)
• ...dat het gerepareerd moet worden. (...that it needs to be repaired.)

Examples in Context

Dutch	English	Note
Het huis is vorig jaar gebouwd.	The house was built last year.	Present perfect passive
De brief werd gisteren verzonden.	The letter was sent yesterday.	Simple past passive
Er wordt hier niet gerookt.	No smoking here.	Impersonal passive
De auto zou gerepareerd moeten worden.	The car should be repaired.	Conditional + modal passive
De beslissing was al genomen.	The decision had already been made.	Past perfect passive
Het probleem kan opgelost worden.	The problem can be solved.	Modal + passive
Er werd hard gelachen.	People laughed hard.	Impersonal past passive
Het contract zal morgen getekend worden.	The contract will be signed tomorrow.	Future passive
De dief is door de politie gepakt.	The thief was caught by the police.	Agent with door
Hier mag niet geparkeerd worden.	Parking is not allowed here.	Modal passive prohibition
Het eten was al klaargemaakt toen we kwamen.	The food had been prepared when we arrived.	Past perfect passive
Er moet iets gedaan worden.	Something must be done.	Impersonal + modal

Common Mistakes

Keeping geworden in present perfect passive

• Wrong: Het rapport is geschreven geworden. (in Netherlands Dutch)
• Right: Het rapport is geschreven.
• Why: Modern Netherlands Dutch drops geworden in the present perfect passive. Including it sounds archaic. Note: Belgian Dutch may retain it.

Confusing werd (action) and was (state/result)

• Wrong: Het huis werd al verkocht toen ik kwam. (when meaning "had already been sold")
• Right: Het huis was al verkocht toen ik kwam.
• Why: Werd describes an ongoing past action; was + participle describes a completed state in the past. "Had already been sold" is a completed state.

Wrong word order with modal passive

• Wrong: Het moet worden gerepareerd.
• Right: Het moet gerepareerd worden.
• Why: In main clauses, the past participle comes before worden at the end. The order is: modal + participle + worden.

Forgetting er in impersonal passives

• Wrong: Wordt hier niet gerookt. (as a standalone sentence)
• Right: Er wordt hier niet gerookt. or Hier wordt niet gerookt.
• Why: If no other element fills the first position, er is needed as a placeholder subject.

Using worden instead of zijn for results

• Wrong: De deur wordt gesloten. (when the door is already closed)
• Right: De deur is gesloten. (state) or De deur wordt gesloten. (action of closing)
• Why: Worden + participle = action happening; zijn + participle = result/state. Choose based on whether you mean the process or the outcome.

Usage Notes

The extended passive is much more common in written Dutch than in speech. Academic papers, news articles, government documents, and legal texts use it extensively. In spoken Dutch, people tend to restructure sentences to use the active voice or impersonal constructions with men (one) or ze (they).

In Belgian Dutch, geworden is retained more often in the perfect passive, and some verb cluster orders differ in subordinate clauses. Both are grammatically correct within their regional norms.

The impersonal passive is a distinctly Dutch construction that marks proficiency. Native speakers use it frequently for rules, generalizations, and descriptions of activities: Er wordt veel gefietst in Nederland (A lot of cycling happens in the Netherlands).

The passive with modal verbs is particularly important for professional Dutch. Instructions, requirements, and regulations are typically expressed this way: Het formulier moet ingevuld worden (The form must be filled in).

Practice Tips

• Take a Dutch news article and identify every passive construction. Classify each by tense (present, past, perfect, past perfect) and type (action, state, impersonal, modal).
• Practice converting active sentences to passive in all tenses. Start with present and simple past, then add perfect, past perfect, and modal constructions.
• Write five rules or regulations for an imaginary organization using the impersonal passive and modal passive: Er mag niet gerookt worden. De rapporten moeten op tijd ingeleverd worden.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Passive Voice -- the basic passive with worden and zijn is essential before tackling extended forms