The Passive Voice

The Passive Voice in German, just as in English, shift the emphasis from the subject of the sentence to the action within the sentence.  What had been the direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.  In an active sentence the subject performs an action, whereas in a passive sentence the subject is being acted upon by the agent that was the subject of the active sentence.  This agent might or might not be expressed in the passive sentence.  If it is expressed, it is preceded by either the word von or durch:  von in the case where the agent is aperson (use of dative required afterward) and durch where the agent is an inanimate object (use of accusative case required afterward).

In German passive constructions the verb WERDEN is always used in some form PLUS the PAST PARTICIPLE OF THE ACTIVE VERB.

The method of changing an active sentence to a passive sentence can be summarized  in 4 short steps.

• Move the direct object of the active sentence to the beginning of the sentence (subject position).  If necessary, change the definite article from DEN back to DER (Nominative Case).  Make any changes needed in adjective endings.  If no direct object is stated in the active sentence, use the word ES to begin the sentence.
• Move the subject of the active sentence to the direct object position.

If it is a human being, precede the noun with the word VON plus the DATIVE CASE.  If it is an inanimate object, precede the word with DURCH and the ACCUSATIVE CASE.  Make any changes in adjective endings required.

• Decide what tense the active sentence is written in and then choose the matching verb tense from of WERDEN (with its special past tense forms for passive).  Refer to this chart below:

• Change the active verb to its PAST PARTICIPLE FORM and move it to the end of the new sentence.  In the case of PRESENT PERFECT or PAST PERFECT, put the word WORDEN after the past participle of the active verb.