Passive Voice in Dutch

Overview

The passive voice in Dutch (de lijdende vorm) allows you to shift focus from who performs an action to the action itself or the thing affected. Just as in English ("The house was built"), Dutch uses passive constructions extensively in formal writing, news reports, and everyday conversation.

What makes Dutch passive unique is the distinction between worden (action passive) and zijn (state/result passive). This two-verb system can be confusing at first, but once you grasp when to use each, it becomes a powerful tool for natural expression.

At the B1 level, you will encounter passive constructions in newspapers, official documents, and instructions. Understanding and producing them is key to sounding more fluent and handling real-world Dutch texts.

How It Works

Formation

The passive is formed with an auxiliary verb (worden or zijn) plus a past participle. The agent (who performs the action) is introduced by door (by).

Active: De kok maakt het eten. (The cook makes the food.) Passive: Het eten wordt (door de kok) gemaakt. (The food is made (by the cook).)

Worden vs. Zijn

Auxiliary	Meaning	Use
worden	action/process passive	Describes an ongoing or habitual action
zijn	state/result passive	Describes the result or current state

Compare:

• Het huis wordt gebouwd. (The house is being built.) -- action in progress
• Het huis is gebouwd. (The house has been built / is built.) -- completed result

Passive in Different Tenses

Tense	Active	Passive
Present	Hij maakt het.	Het wordt gemaakt.
Simple past	Hij maakte het.	Het werd gemaakt.
Present perfect	Hij heeft het gemaakt.	Het is gemaakt.
Past perfect	Hij had het gemaakt.	Het was gemaakt.

Note: In the present perfect passive, Dutch drops geworden in modern usage. You may see Het is gemaakt geworden in older texts or Belgian Dutch, but Het is gemaakt is standard today.

Impersonal Passive

Dutch can form a passive even from intransitive verbs using er as a dummy subject. This has no direct English equivalent.

• Er wordt veel gelachen. (There is a lot of laughing. / People laugh a lot.)
• Er werd de hele nacht gedanst. (There was dancing all night.)

Word Order

In main clauses: subject + worden/zijn + other elements + past participle. In subordinate clauses: the past participle and auxiliary move to the end.

• Main: De brief wordt morgen verzonden.
• Subordinate: ...dat de brief morgen verzonden wordt.

Examples in Context

Dutch	English	Note
Het huis wordt gebouwd.	The house is being built.	Action passive, present
De brief is geschreven.	The letter has been written.	State/result passive
Hij werd door de politie gearresteerd.	He was arrested by the police.	Agent with door
Er wordt veel gepraat.	There's a lot of talking.	Impersonal passive
De auto werd gisteren gerepareerd.	The car was repaired yesterday.	Simple past passive
Het eten is al klaargemaakt.	The food has already been prepared.	Result passive
De deur wordt om zes uur gesloten.	The door is closed at six o'clock.	Habitual action
Er werd hard gewerkt.	People worked hard.	Impersonal, past
Het probleem wordt besproken.	The problem is being discussed.	Action in progress
De kinderen werden naar school gebracht.	The children were taken to school.	Past passive

Common Mistakes

Confusing worden and zijn

• Wrong: Het huis is nu gebouwd. (when you mean the building is ongoing)
• Right: Het huis wordt nu gebouwd.
• Why: Zijn + participle describes a completed state. If the action is in progress, use worden.

Keeping geworden in the present perfect

• Wrong: Het boek is geschreven geworden. (in modern standard Dutch)
• Right: Het boek is geschreven.
• Why: Modern standard Dutch omits geworden in the present perfect passive. Including it sounds archaic or overly formal (though it is still used in Belgian Dutch).

Wrong word order with door

• Wrong: Het werd gearresteerd door de politie de man.
• Right: De man werd door de politie gearresteerd.
• Why: The door-phrase typically goes between the auxiliary and the past participle, or after the participle. The subject comes first.

Forgetting the impersonal er

• Wrong: Wordt hier niet gerookt.
• Right: Er wordt hier niet gerookt.
• Why: Impersonal passives need er as a placeholder subject (unless another element fills the first position).

Usage Notes

The passive voice is used much more frequently in Dutch formal writing and news reports than in casual conversation. In spoken Dutch, people tend to use active constructions or impersonal men (one) or ze (they) instead.

In Belgian Dutch (Flanders), geworden is retained more often in the present perfect passive: Het is gebouwd geworden. This is grammatically correct but sounds unusual to Netherlands-Dutch speakers. Belgians may also favor different word orders in verb clusters involving the passive.

The impersonal passive (Er wordt gedanst) is a distinctly Dutch feature that you should learn to recognize and use. It appears in signs, rules, and everyday speech.

Practice Tips

• Take five active sentences from a Dutch news article and rewrite them in the passive voice. Check whether worden or zijn fits better for each.
• Practice the impersonal passive by describing activities at events: Er wordt gedanst, er wordt gezongen, er wordt gelachen.
• Pay attention to signs and instructions in Dutch -- they frequently use passive constructions (Hier wordt niet gerookt, Verboden toegang wordt bestraft).

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Zijn (to be) -- zijn is used as the auxiliary for state passives, so you need solid command of its conjugation
• Next steps: Extended Passive -- covers passive constructions in all tenses, including complex verb clusters