241. The Passive (Voice) (II)

241.  The Passive (Voice) (II) 

In the last Post we looked at the use of the the Passive where the action happens to the Subject of a Clause. We saw how to form the Passive where we use  the various tenses of the verb  werden  +  the Past Participle ...

Mein Auto wurde durch einen Hagelsturm beschädigt  

Mein Auto wird von einem Mechaniker repariert

However, we did not look at the Passive in the Perfect Tense (nor the Pluperfect Tense) as this works somewhat differently. The reason for this is that in the Perfect Tense  werden  is used (conjugated)  with  the verb sein ....  e.g.  Mein Vater  ist in Ulm  sehr krank geworden. Because the Perfect Tense requires the Passive to use  werden  in this form, we see a different structure emerge and it works like this ...
                             Mein Auto ist durch einen Hagelsturm beschädigt worden

Meine neuen CDs sind im Zug von meinem Bruder verloren worden

You will note here that the Past Participle for  werden  becomes  worden  in this instance and over time probably this has avoided the repetition or doubling up of the 'ge' prefix. 

Meine CDs sind später unter einem Sitz im Zug gefunden geworden becomes now ...

Meine CDs sind später  im Zug unter einem Sitz gefunden worden.

To form the Pluperfect Tense ...the bin, bist, ist, sind, seid of the Present Tense used for the formation of the Perfect Tense together with the Past Participle + worden now become war, warst, war, waren, wart  (Simple Past Tense forms of sein) 

Meine CDs waren später im Zug gefunden worden  ... had  been found

Mein Auto war von einem Mechaniker repariert worden  .... had  been repaired

A word of caution about the Passive Voice, however ....  The Passive tends not to be used in everyday language and is used mainly in a literary context (books, newspapers etc.) and ....

Frequently the Passive is replaced by the Impersonal word  'man'  (one, you, we, people ) ... and as such the sentence becomes Active Voice again.  Man is the subject and is of a general nature.

Man spricht hier Deutsch (German is spoken here - lit.  One speaks German here)

This sign is often seen in the windows of European shops in an attempt to attract German tourists.

Berlin near Brandenburg Gate