Passive Voice
The passive voice in German lets you highlight actions or states without naming the doer, and it appears in two main forms: the Vorgangspassiv (process passive) and the Zustandspassiv (state passive).
Vorgangspassiv
The Vorgangspassiv shows that an action is taking place and is formed with werden plus the past participle; you can name the agent with von or durch if needed.
Formation
To form the Vorgangspassiv, use the appropriate tense of werden as an auxiliary and place the past participle at the end of the clause.
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Examples
| German Example | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 🥐 Das Brot wird im Ofen gebacken. | The bread is being baked in the oven. |
| ☕ Der Kaffee wird gerade aufgebrüht. | The coffee is being brewed right now. |
| 🧀 Die Käseplatte wird vorbereitet. | The cheese platter is being prepared. |
| 🥬 Das Gemüse wird gewaschen. | The vegetables are being washed. |
Zustandspassiv
The Zustandspassiv describes a resulting state after an action and uses sein plus the past participle; it focuses on the condition rather than the ongoing process.
Formation
To form the Zustandspassiv, use the appropriate tense of sein as an auxiliary and place the past participle at the end, similar to the Vorgangspassiv.
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Examples
| German Example | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 🍞 Das Brot ist goldbraun gebacken. | The bread is baked golden brown. |
| ☕ Der Kaffee ist frisch aufgebrüht. | The coffee is freshly brewed. |
| 🧃 Die Säfte sind kaltgestellt. | The juices are chilled. |
| 🥗 Der Salat ist mariniert. | The salad is marinated. |
Get-Passive (lassen)
German also has a Get-Passive with lassen that expresses causing something to be done or sometimes an action that happened to someone; it functions differently from werden in the passive.
Agent
The agent in a passive sentence appears with von or durch when you want to specify who did the action; leaving out the agent makes the sentence more general.
Summary
Use Vorgangspassiv with werden for ongoing actions, Zustandspassiv with sein for resulting states, and lassen for caused actions; choose whether to include the agent based on relevance.
Last updated: Sun Sep 14, 2025