German loves hiding the culprit. One sentence says Der Chef prüft den Bericht. The next says Der Bericht wird geprüft — and the boss has vanished from the room.
That vanishing act is german grammar the passive voice. It is not decoration. It is how German writes rules, news, science, and every sign in every Amt.
What you will get from this guide
- The one formula that generates almost every passive sentence
- Modal passives, agent phrases, and the Zustandspassiv
- A tense table you can copy and the four traps that catch learners
The Core Formula
German passive is built from two parts: a form of werden plus the Partizip II.
Read werden as "get". That small translation choice fixes more confusion than any grammar rule. German passive is not really "is done" — it is "gets done".
The Object Does a Magic Trick
Here is the move that trips everyone. The accusative object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. And because it becomes a subject, the verb now agrees with it.
The article shifts from accusative to nominative, and the verb follows. Miss this and your sentences sound foreign even when every word is correct.
Every Tense, One Table
One word deserves a spotlight: worden. In the perfect passive, German drops the ge- from geworden and leaves you worden. Small word, huge signal. It tells the reader you are dealing with a passive, not a description.
Modals, the Passive Workhorse
Modal verbs are where passive German becomes genuinely useful, because rules and instructions live here.
The word order matters: the Partizip II sits before werden, and werden goes to the end. Sentence-final werden is the fingerprint of a modal passive.
Grammar you can use before you finish the page.
Rules and word order are where self-study stalls. A personal AI voice tutor gives you speaking practice with instant feedback, so worden and werden stop blurring into one word. See German course options →
Start the German course →Create a free accountNaming the Doer: von and durch
Sometimes you want the culprit back.
A shortcut for real life: von takes a person; durch takes a thing or a mechanism. When in doubt, ask whether the agent could sign its own name.
Zustandspassiv: Done vs Being Done
German has two passives, not one, and this is the distinction English hides.
Compare: Die Tür wird geschlossen (the door is being closed) against Die Tür ist geschlossen (the door is closed — a state). Same words, different world. The Zustandspassiv uses sein; the Vorgangspassiv uses werden.
The Four Traps
Passive with es, and When Not to Bother
German allows an impersonal passive with no subject at all: Es wird viel gelacht — there is a lot of laughing. In this pattern es is a placeholder, not a real subject, and it vanishes when the sentence opens with anything else: Heute wird viel gelacht.
And a caution. English learners overuse the passive in German because academic English taught them to. German news and instructions love it, but German conversation prefers the active or the generic man. Man repariert das hier often sounds more natural than Das wird hier repariert. Learn the passive thoroughly, then use it deliberately.
Read the news, the Amt letters, the manuals.
Passive German is how the language talks when it wants to be official. A self-paced course pass walks you through every tense and structure until official German stops being a wall. Start your German course →
Start the German course →Create a free accountFrequently Asked Questions
What is the basic German passive formula? werden plus the Partizip II, with the object of the active sentence promoted to subject. Der Bericht wird geprüft — the report is checked.
Why does geworden become worden? In the perfect passive, German shortens geworden to worden so it does not clash with the next word. It only happens in this construction.
How do I tell Vorgangspassiv from Zustandspassiv? Check the auxiliary. werden means an action in progress; sein means a finished state. Wird geschlossen versus ist geschlossen.
Where should a CEFR learner start with the passive? B1 is where passive forms officially appear in the CEFR descriptors. Start with present and simple past, add modals, then handle worden later.
References & Further Reading
- Duden — Die Grammatik, passive voice (Passiv) reference: https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen
- Goethe-Institut — German grammar and level resources: https://www.goethe.de/en/spr/kup/prf.html
- Deutsche Welle Nicos Weg — grammar explanations from A1 to B1: https://learngerman.dw.com/en/overview
- Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages
- LanguageSkills.net German course pass: https://languageskills.net/german