German Passive Voice: Werden, Sein, and Real-World Usage

The German passive voice is formed most often with a form of werden /ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/ plus a past participle: Das Haus wird gebaut /das haʊs vɪʁt ɡəˈbaʊt/, meaning “The house is being built.” Use this action passive when something happens, and use sein /zaɪn/ plus a past participle when you mean that the result already exists: Das Haus ist gebaut /das haʊs ɪst ɡəˈbaʊt/, “The house is built.”

Passive voice is one of the most useful German grammar patterns for reading signs, following instructions, understanding news reports, and communicating professionally. It can look dense at first because German separates verbs and uses two different passive structures, but the core system is highly regular.

German has roughly 130 million speakers worldwide according to Ethnologue, and it is an official or co-official language in six European countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Across those places, passive constructions appear especially often in public information, workplace procedures, academic writing, and bureaucratic language.

If German word order still feels uncertain, first review the main-clause patterns in our German word order guide. Passive sentences obey the same verb-position rules, even when the verb phrase gets longer.

What the German passive voice does

The passive voice shifts attention away from the person doing an action and toward the action itself, its recipient, or its result.

Compare these active and passive sentences:

In most passive sentences, the doer is unknown, irrelevant, obvious, or deliberately not mentioned. A train announcement cares that a door is closing, not who activates the closing mechanism.

This focus is why passive voice is common in German instructions. You may see Hier wird nicht geraucht /hiːɐ̯ vɪʁt nɪçt ɡəˈʁaʊxt/, “No smoking here,” or Bitte warten Sie, bis Sie aufgerufen werden /ˈbɪtə ˈvaʁtn̩ ziː bɪs ziː ˈaʊfɡəʁuːfn̩ ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/, “Please wait until you are called.”

The action passive with werden

The action passive is called Vorgangspassiv /ˈfoːɐ̯ɡaŋspasɪf/ in German. It presents an event, process, or action.

The basic formula is:

So:

• Der Brief wird geschrieben. /deːɐ̯ bʁiːf vɪʁt ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩/ means “The letter is being written.”
• Die Briefe werden geschrieben. /diː ˈbʁiːfə ˈveːɐ̯dn̩ ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩/ means “The letters are being written.”

The old accusative object becomes the nominative subject. In the active sentence, den Brief /deːn bʁiːf/ is accusative. In the passive version, it becomes der Brief /deːɐ̯ bʁiːf/, so the auxiliary agrees with it.

Present tense

Use present-tense forms of werden /ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/ plus the past participle.

In natural sentences, an object such as das Essen /das ˈɛsn̩/ or die Arbeit /diː ˈaʁbaɪt/ takes the subject position:

• Das Essen wird vorbereitet. /das ˈɛsn̩ vɪʁt ˈfoːɐ̯bɛʁaɪtət/, “The food is being prepared.”
• Die Arbeit wird morgen beendet. /diː ˈaʁbaɪt vɪʁt ˈmɔʁɡn̩ bəˈʔɛndət/, “The work will be finished tomorrow.”

Simple past

For narrative writing, reports, and historical accounts, use wurde /ˈvʊʁdə/ or wurden /ˈvʊʁdn̩/ plus the past participle.

• Der Film wurde gestern gezeigt. /deːɐ̯ fɪlm ˈvʊʁdə ˈɡɛstɐn ɡəˈtsaɪçt/, “The film was shown yesterday.”
• Die Daten wurden gespeichert. /diː ˈdaːtn̩ ˈvʊʁdn̩ ɡəˈʃpaɪçɐt/, “The data were saved.”

German news reporting often uses this pattern because it creates a factual, agent-neutral tone. You will frequently encounter sentences such as Die Straße wurde gesperrt /diː ˈʃtʁaːsə ˈvʊʁdə ɡəˈʃpɛʁt/, “The road was closed.”

Present perfect

The perfect passive is the form many learners find hardest:

sein /zaɪn/ + past participle + worden /ˈvɔʁdn̩/

• Der Brief ist geschrieben worden. /deːɐ̯ bʁiːf ɪst ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩ ˈvɔʁdn̩/, “The letter has been written.”
• Die Rechnung ist bezahlt worden. /diː ˈʁɛçnʊŋ ɪst bəˈtsaːlt ˈvɔʁdn̩/, “The bill has been paid.”

The final worden /ˈvɔʁdn̩/ is essential. Do not substitute geworden /ɡəˈvɔʁdn̩/ here.

Compare:

• Die Tür ist geschlossen worden. /diː tyːɐ̯ ɪst ɡəˈʃlɔsn̩ ˈvɔʁdn̩/, “The door has been closed.”
• Die Tür ist geschlossen. /diː tyːɐ̯ ɪst ɡəˈʃlɔsn̩/, “The door is closed.”

The first describes the completed act. The second describes the current state.

Future tense

For future passive, use werden /ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/ twice: once as the future auxiliary and once in infinitive form.

• Der Vertrag wird unterschrieben werden. /deːɐ̯ fɛɐ̯ˈtʁaːk vɪʁt ˈʊntɐʃʁiːbn̩ ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/, “The contract will be signed.”
• Die Ergebnisse werden morgen veröffentlicht werden. /diː ɛʁˈɡeːbnɪsə ˈveːɐ̯dn̩ ˈmɔʁɡn̩ fɛɐ̯ˈʔœfəntlɪçt ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/, “The results will be published tomorrow.”

Although grammatical, this double-werden /ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/ structure can sound formal. In conversation, German speakers often use the present tense with a time adverb: Die Ergebnisse werden morgen veröffentlicht /diː ɛʁˈɡeːbnɪsə ˈveːɐ̯dn̩ ˈmɔʁɡn̩ fɛɐ̯ˈʔœfəntlɪçt/, which clearly refers to the future.

The state passive with sein

The state passive is called Zustandspassiv /tsuˈʃtantspasɪf/. It uses sein /zaɪn/ plus a past participle and describes the condition resulting from an earlier action.

The distinction is practical, not merely grammatical. A sign saying Geschlossen /ɡəˈʃlɔsn̩/ tells you a business is currently shut. It does not describe the act of an employee locking its door.

Martin Durrell, Katrin Kohl, and Claudia Kaiser treat this contrast as a central part of passive interpretation in Hammer's German Grammar and Usage. It explains why translating English “is closed” word for word can produce the wrong German meaning.

When state passive is especially common

State passive occurs naturally with verbs that create a clear end result:

• Die Heizung ist eingeschaltet. /diː ˈhaɪtsʊŋ ɪst ˈaɪnɡəʃaltət/, “The heating is on.”
• Das Museum ist geöffnet. /das muˈzeːʊm ɪst ɡəˈʔœfnət/, “The museum is open.”
• Der Computer ist repariert. /deːɐ̯ kɔmˈpjuːtɐ ɪst ʁepaˈʁiːɐ̯t/, “The computer is repaired.”
• Die Aufgabe ist erledigt. /diː ˈaʊfɡaːbə ɪst ɛɐ̯ˈleːdɪçt/, “The task is done.”

This is common in practical German: office emails, repair updates, hotel notices, and customer-service messages often report a result rather than narrate the process.

Passive voice in different sentence types

With an agent

If the person or organization responsible matters, add von /fɔn/ plus the dative case.

• Das Buch wurde von der Autorin geschrieben. /das buːx ˈvʊʁdə fɔn deːɐ̯ aʊˈtoːʁɪn ɡəˈʃʁiːbn̩/, “The book was written by the author.”
• Die Brücke wird von einer Firma gebaut. /diː ˈbʁʏkə vɪʁt fɔn ˈaɪnɐ ˈfɪʁma ɡəˈbaʊt/, “The bridge is being built by a company.”

Use durch /dʊʁç/ when an impersonal force or means causes something:

• Die Straße wurde durch den Sturm blockiert. /diː ˈʃtʁaːsə ˈvʊʁdə dʊʁç deːn ʃtʊʁm blɔˈkiːɐ̯t/, “The road was blocked by the storm.”

With dative objects

A dative object stays dative in passive. It does not become the subject.

• Active: Man hilft dem Mann. /man hɪlft deːm man/, “People help the man.”
• Passive: Dem Mann wird geholfen. /deːm man vɪʁt ɡəˈhɔlfn̩/, “The man is being helped.”

There is no nominative noun here. German can still form the sentence, with singular wird /vɪʁt/ in third person.

Impersonal passive

Some intransitive verbs can form an impersonal passive, especially when they describe an activity performed by people.

• Es wird getanzt. /ɛs vɪʁt ɡəˈtantst/, “There is dancing.”
• Hier wird viel gelacht. /hiːɐ̯ vɪʁt fiːl ɡəˈlaxt/, “People laugh a lot here.”
• Über das Problem wird gesprochen. /ˈyːbɐ das pʁoˈbleːm vɪʁt ɡəˈʃpʁɔxn̩/, “The problem is being discussed.”

The es /ɛs/ in Es wird getanzt /ɛs vɪʁt ɡəˈtantst/ often fills the first position. If another element comes first, remove it:

• Heute wird getanzt. /ˈhɔʏtə vɪʁt ɡəˈtantst/, “Today there will be dancing.”

Helbig and Buscha’s Deutsche Grammatik gives special attention to these agentless constructions because they are structurally different from the English passive. English often needs “people” or “one,” while German can leave the actor entirely unnamed.

Word order in passive sentences

Passive changes the verb form, not the core German rule that the conjugated verb occupies the second position in a main clause.

• Der Antrag wird heute geprüft. /deːɐ̯ ˈantʁaːk vɪʁt ˈhɔʏtə ɡəˈpʁyːft/
• Heute wird der Antrag geprüft. /ˈhɔʏtə vɪʁt deːɐ̯ ˈantʁaːk ɡəˈpʁyːft/
• In Berlin wird der Antrag heute geprüft. /ɪn bɛʁˈliːn vɪʁt deːɐ̯ ˈantʁaːk ˈhɔʏtə ɡəˈpʁyːft/

In subordinate clauses, the conjugated auxiliary moves to the end.

• ..., weil der Antrag heute geprüft wird. /vaɪl deːɐ̯ ˈantʁaːk ˈhɔʏtə ɡəˈpʁyːft vɪʁt/, “...because the application is being reviewed today.”
• ..., weil der Antrag geprüft worden ist. /vaɪl deːɐ̯ ˈantʁaːk ɡəˈpʁyːft ˈvɔʁdn̩ ɪst/, “...because the application has been reviewed.”

For a fuller explanation of this final-verb pattern, see our German sentence structure guide.

When German prefers active sentences

German can sound bureaucratic when passive appears too often. In ordinary speech, speakers commonly use man /man/ when the actor is general but human.

Compare:

• Hier wird Deutsch gesprochen. /hiːɐ̯ vɪʁt dɔʏtʃ ɡəˈʃpʁɔxn̩/, “German is spoken here.”
• Hier spricht man Deutsch. /hiːɐ̯ ʃpʁɪçt man dɔʏtʃ/, “People speak German here.”

Both are natural. The passive version sounds useful on a sign or in a guide. The man /man/ version is often more conversational.

This distinction matters when you listen to German films and TV. Dialogue favors people, pronouns, and active verbs because speakers usually know or care who acted. News presenters, announcements, and official notices are more likely to use passive framing. Watching short scenes with subtitles can make that contrast easier to notice, as explained in our guide to learning a language with movies.

Common German passive mistakes

Using werden for a state

Do not say Die Tür wird geschlossen /diː tyːɐ̯ vɪʁt ɡəˈʃlɔsn̩/ if you mean “The door is closed” as a current condition. That means someone is closing it.

Say Die Tür ist geschlossen /diː tyːɐ̯ ɪst ɡəˈʃlɔsn̩/ for the existing state.

Forgetting that the object changes case

The accusative object becomes nominative:

• Active: Man repariert den Computer. /man ʁepaˈʁiːɐ̯t deːn kɔmˈpjuːtɐ/
• Passive: Der Computer wird repariert. /deːɐ̯ kɔmˈpjuːtɐ vɪʁt ʁepaˈʁiːɐ̯t/

This matters most with masculine nouns because their articles visibly change from den /deːn/ to der /deːɐ̯/.

Adding geworden in perfect passive

Avoid ist repariert geworden /ɪst ʁepaˈʁiːɐ̯t ɡəˈvɔʁdn̩/ for “has been repaired.” The standard passive form is ist repariert worden /ɪst ʁepaˈʁiːɐ̯t ˈvɔʁdn̩/.

Making every English passive literal

English often uses passive to sound impersonal: “You are requested to wait.” German may use a direct imperative or polite command instead: Bitte warten Sie /ˈbɪtə ˈvaʁtn̩ ziː/. Learn the grammar, then choose the tone that fits the situation.

A practical way to master German passive

Start with present-tense action passive, then add the state passive. Do not attempt every tense at once.

Use this sequence:

1. Turn simple active sentences into werden /ˈveːɐ̯dn̩/ passive.
2. Identify whether a sentence describes an event or a result.
3. Practice the worden /ˈvɔʁdn̩/ perfect pattern.
4. Notice passive voice in signs, instructions, emails, and news headlines.
5. Rephrase passive sentences with man /man/ to understand the conversational alternative.

A useful contrast drill is: Die Tür wird geöffnet /diː tyːɐ̯ vɪʁt ɡəˈʔœfnət/, then Die Tür ist geöffnet /diː tyːɐ̯ ɪst ɡəˈʔœfnət/. Repeat it with windows, shops, files, computers, and invitations until the action-versus-state difference feels automatic.

Once you can distinguish wird gemacht /vɪʁt ɡəˈmaxt/ from ist gemacht /ɪst ɡəˈmaxt/, German passive voice becomes far less intimidating. Pair the grammar with real listening, and you will hear why formal notices favor passive while everyday conversations usually choose active alternatives.