7.4 The passive with werden
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Both in spoken and in written German you may find the two tenses used more or less interchangeably.
‘Up-to-now’ contexts In ‘up-to-now’ sentences, typically with ‘for’ or ‘since’, English uses the perfect tense (often in the progressive). German always uses the PRESENT TENSE in such contexts (usually with seit or schon): Ich studiere seit 6 Wochen dort. Er fährt seit 1990 jedes Jahr nach Dresden. Wir warten schon eine Stunde auf euch!
I’ve been studying there for 6 weeks. Since 1990 he’s been going to Dresden every year. We’ve been waiting for you for an hour!
7.4 The passive with werden Action is typically expressed using the ‘default’ ACTIVE VOICE, both in English and in German. The active sentence Die Schlange frisst den Frosch (‘The snake is eating the frog’) tells us what is happening and who or what is doing it. But we can also use the PASSIVE VOICE and thereby present a different perspective on an action: Der Frosch wird gefressen (‘The frog is being eaten’) places the emphasis on what is going on without saying who is doing it. Most active sentences with a TRANSITIVE VERB can be turned into passive sentences (a transitive verb takes a direct object, in the accusative case, see 1.3). The ACCUSATIVE OBJECT of the active sentence becomes the SUBJECT of the passive sentence:
Die Schlange
frisst
Der Frosch
wird
den Frosch
von der Schlange
gefressen
The subject of the active sentence (die Schlange) is either omitted altogether, or appears in a phrase using von or durch (English ‘by’, see 7.7): Der Frosch wird von der Schlange gefressen (‘The frog is being eaten by the snake’):
tense
active
passive
present
Der Arzt heilt den Patienten.
Der Patient wird (vom Arzt) geheilt.
The doctor heals the patient.
The patient is healed (by the doctor).
Die Bauleute rissen das Haus ab.
Das Haus wurde (von den Bauleuten) abgerissen.
The builders pulled down the house.
The house was pulled down (by the builders).
past
