Passive Voice in German Tenses

The passive voice (Passiv) is a fairly complex grammatical topic that can easily confuse learners. Today's article will cover the passive voice across the various tenses in German.

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***Principles for forming passive sentences:

• The object (Objekt) becomes the subject.

• The subject in the active sentence is transformed into the agent with von/ durch. The agent can be omitted in the passive sentence.

• The verb in the passive voice is conjugated differently depending on the tense.

1. Passive in the simple present (Präsens)

• Structure:

S + werden + … + Partizip II

• Conjugation table for werden:

• Example:

Mein Vater repariert das Auto. (My father repairs the car.)

⇒ Das Auto wird (von meinem Vater) repariert. (The car is repaired by my father.)

1. Passive in the simple past (Präteritum)

• Structure:

S + wurden + … + Partizip II

• Conjugation table for wurden:

• Example:

Ich suchte den Stift so lange. (I was looking for the pen for a long time.)

⇒ Der Stift wurde (von mir) so lange gesucht. (The pen was searched for a long time by me.)

1. Passive in the present perfect (Perfekt)

• Structure:

S + sein + … + Partizip II + worden

Wir haben diese Wohnung gekauft. (We bought this apartment.)

⇒ Diese Wohnung ist gekauft worden. (This apartment was bought by us.)

1. Passive in the past perfect (Plusquamperfekt)

• Structure:

S + waren + … + Partizip II + worden

• Conjugation table for waren:

• Example:

Ein Arzt hatte den Student operiert. (A doctor had operated on a student.)

⇒ Der Student war von einem Arzt operiert worden. (The student had been operated on by a doctor.)

1. Passive in the future tense

• Structure:

S + werden + … + Partizip II + werden (Infinitiv)Sie wird die Tür öffnen. (She will open the door.)

⇒ Die Tür wird geöffnet werden. (The door will be opened.)