240. The Passive (I)

240.  The Passive  (Voice) (I)  

Most sentences use Active Voice to express a straightforward idea, however, occasionally a sentence is expressed in the Passive Voice for a different and sometimes more striking effect.

The Passive Voice involves the Subject of the Clause having the action happen to it rather than providing the action itself. Let's look at a couple of examples in English ...

A   Active:      The mechanic is repairing my car.
      Passive:     My car is being repaired by the mechanic.

B   Active:      The hailstorm damaged my car.
      Passive:     My car was damaged by the hailstorm

The structure for the Passive in German involves the use of  werden + Past Participle.

C    Active:     Der Mechaniker repariert mein Auto.
       Passive:   Mein Auto wird von dem Mechaniker repariert

D    Active:      Der Hagelsturm hat mein Auto beschädigt.
       Passive:     Mein Auto wurde durch den Hagelsturm beschädigt.

The Tense of the sentence becomes an issue here. In the Present Tense, the Present forms of  werden are used (with the Past Participle which never varies), the Simple Past Tense (Imperfect Tense) of werden is used with the Past Participle and the Future Tense uses the Present Tense of  werden + Past participle + Infinitive of werden. In the Immediate Future, werden at the end is sometimes omitted. Let's look at how these work..

Present:     Mein Auto wird von dem Mechaniker repariert.
Imperfect:  Mein Auto wurde von dem Mechaniker repariert
Future:       Mein Auto wird von dem Mechaniker repariert (werden).

Another thing to notice here is that when actions are performed by a person, the word used for 'by' is von (Think Volk). For objects, the word for 'by' is  durch (Think Ding). For instruments such as a 'pen', the word for 'by' is mit... das alte Buch wurde mit Feder geschrieben.

The Perfect Tense is a little tricky so I will leave this until the next Post.

At foot of Brandenburg Gate