This article provides you with all the German passive forms (Handlungspassiv) – on their own as well as in combination with modal verbs and/or in subclauses.
Table of Contents
In a previous article I showed you the fundamentals of the passive voice in German grammar. So if you are not sure what the passive is or unsure about how and when it’s used, please check out my article: Passive Voice In German (Part 1) – Quick Guide for Beginners
In this article we will talk about the the passive voice in all tenses. As a brief reminder, let me quickly tell you the formula for the passive voice:
► The formula for the passive voice in German is werden + Partizip 2*
*There is also the Zustandspassiv with the formula “sein” + Partizip 2.
Present Tense
Active: Der Schüler schreibt den Text.
The student writes the text.
Passive: Der Text wird (vom Schüler) geschrieben.
The text is written (by the student).
This should be review. If not, please refer back to my first article in the topic. 😉
Preterite (Präteritum)
Active: Der Schüler schrieb den Text.
The student wrote the text.
Passive: Der Text wurde (vom Schüler) geschrieben.
The text was written (by the student).
This is by far the most important past tense form for the passive voice. It is both easier to use and a lot more common than the passive in the perfect tense. Pretty easy, right? You simply need a preterite form of werden for the passive in the preterite tense (e.g. ich wurde instead of ich werde). The far trickier thing is knowing all the Partizip 2 forms, many of which are irregular – just like in English.
Let’s move on now to the other past tense forms: the perfect and the past perfect.
Perfect Tense
Active: Der Schüler hat den Text geschrieben.
The student has written the text.
Passive: Der Text ist (vom Schüler) geschrieben worden.
The text has been written (by the student).
For the perfect tense it makes sense that there is one more word compared to the sentence in the preterite as the same difference can be seen in the active sentences (schrieb vs hat geschrieben). So we need the perfect form of the verb werden, which is “ist … worden”.
The verb werden is a bit different to most verbs, it has two different Partizip 2 forms: geworden and worden. For the auxiliary it’s just worden while it’s geworden for the full verb. Auxiliaries are used to form certain grammatical structures, just like the passive, which is what we are doing here.
So, for our purposes – in the passive voice- we will ALWAYS need the participle form “worden” without the “ge”. But in a sentence like “I got ill.” the German equivalent would be “Ich bin krank geworden.”.
So, in main clauses you will always have a form of “sein” (present tense) on the second position of the sentence and the form “worden” (it never changes!) at the very end. Just in front of “worden” you’ll need another Partizip 2 form, namely the one of the verb you are using the passive with. So you will get two participle 2 forms (right next to each other), which makes sense: one because it’s perfect tense (always “worden”!), and one because it’s passive (“geschrieben”, “gemacht” etc.).
Past Perfect Tense (Plusquamperfekt)
Active: Der Schüler hatte den Text geschrieben.
The student had written the text.
Passive: Der Text war (vom Schüler) geschrieben worden.
The text had been written (by the student).
For the past perfect passive all the same rules and considerations of the perfect tense section still apply. The only thing we need to do is “backshift” it: Instead of the present tense of “sein” (ich bin, du bist …) we need the preterite forms of “sein” (ich war, du warst …).
Future Tense
Active: Der Schüler wird den Text schreiben.
The student will write the text.
Passive: Der Text wird (vom Schüler) geschrieben werden.
The text will be written (by the student).
In the future passive we again have three verb forms. As you can see, we have two forms of “werden”. No surprise there as the first one is for the future tense (remember: the formula for the future is “werden” +infinitive) and the second one is for the passive voice (formula: “werden +Partizip 2”).
Please note that it is very common in German to use the present instead of the future tense. So you can simply say:
Der Text wird (morgen) geschrieben. (no need for the future tense!)
Konjunktiv 2
Active: Der Arzt würde den Mann operieren.
The doctor would operate on the man.
Passive: Der Mann würde vom Arzt operiert.
The man would be operated on by the doctor.
The Konjunktiv 2 is not a tense, of course, rather it belongs the grammatical category of “mood”. it is quite important in the passive voice and not very difficult. The formula is: Konjunktiv 2 of “werden” + Partizip 2. Don’t forget the Umlaut (ü) and try to get the pronunciation right otherwise people will think you are using the past tense here (wurde vs würde).
Then, there is also Konjunktiv 2 der Vergangenheit (“Konj. 2 of the past tense”):
Active: Der Arzt hätte den Mann operiert.
The doctor would have operated on the man.
Passive: Der Mann wäre vom Arzt operiert worden.
The man would have been operated on by the doctor.
Modal verbs
Of course, you can use the passive voice in combination with a modal verb. The modal verb will be on the second position of the main clause and the infinitive will be at the end of the sentence, just like in sentences in the active voice.
Active: Der Schüler muss den Text schreiben.
The student has to write the text.
Passive: Der Text muss geschrieben werden.
The text must be written.
The only difference is that we need passive infinitive form (two words!) instead of the (normal) infinitive form. The passive infinitive consists of a Partizip 2 form of a verb + “werden”.
Infinitive active: schreiben
Infinitive passive: geschrieben werden
Subclauses
In subclauses the finite (=conjugated) verb, which is on the second position in main clauses, usually appears at the very end of the sentence. Exceptions: see here.
Main clause: Der Text wurde geschrieben.
Subclause: …, weil der Text geschrieben wurde. (… because the text …)
Main clause: Der Text musste geschrieben werden.
Subclause: …, weil der Text geschrieben werden musste. (… because the text …)
Overview
As you can see in this very last example, these (in part) difficult properties can be combined: Passive voice in a certain tense + a modal verb + all of this could happen in a main cause or in a subclause.
So here I’ve compiled an overview of passive forms in all the different possible scenarios. Some of these are really complicated and are not used very much by native speakers either. I’ve labelled them with an asterisk. Please don’t worry about those ones and focus on the rest! 🙂
In main clauses:
| Präsens: | Das Auto wird gestohlen. The car is stolen. |
| Präteritum: | Das Auto wurde gestohlen. The car was stolen. |
| Perfekt: | Das Auto ist gestohlen worden. The car has been stolen. |
| Plusquamperfekt: | Das Auto war gestohlen worden. The car had been stolen. |
| Futur: | Das Auto wird gestohlen werden. The car will be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2: | Das Auto würde gestohlen. The car would be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2 der Vergangenheit: | Das Auto wäre gestohlen worden. The car would have been stolen. |
In main clauses with a modal verb:
| Präsens: | Das Auto kann gestohlen werden. The car can be stolen. |
| Präteritum: | Das Auto konnte gestohlen werden. The car could be stolen. |
| *Perfekt: | Das Auto hat gestohlen werden können. The car could be stolen. |
| *Plusquamperfekt: | Das Auto hatte gestohlen werden können. The car “had been able to be stolen.“ Or: It had been possible to steal the car. |
| *Futur: | Das Auto wird gestohlen werden können. The car “will be able to be stolen.” |
| Konjunktiv 2: | Das Auto könnte gestohlen werden. The car could be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2 der Vergangenheit: | Das Auto hätte gestohlen werden können. The car could have been stolen. |
In subclauses:
| Präsens: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen wird. … because the car is stolen. |
| Präteritum: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen wurde. … because the car was stolen. |
| Perfekt: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen worden ist. … because the car has been stolen. |
| Plusquamperfekt: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen worden war. … because the car had been stolen. |
| *Futur: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen werden wird. … because the car will be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen würde. … because the car would be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2 der Vergangenheit: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen worden wäre. … because the car would have been stolen. |
In subclauses with a modal verb:
| Präsens: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen werden kann. … because the car can be stolen. |
| Präteritum: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen werden konnte. … because the car could be stolen. |
| *Perfekt: | …, weil das Auto hat gestohlen werden können. … because the car could be stolen. |
| *Plusquamperfekt: | …, weil das Auto hatte gestohlen werden können. … because the car “had been able to be stolen.“ or: … because it had been possible to steal the car. |
| *Futur: | …, weil das Auto wird gestohlen werden können. … because the car “will be able to be stolen.” |
| Konjunktiv 2: | …, weil das Auto gestohlen werden könnte. … because the car could be stolen. |
| Konjunktiv 2 der Vergangenheit: | …, weil das Auto hätte gestohlen werden können. … because the car could have been stolen. |