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7.4 The passive with werden
Both in spoken and in written German you may find the two tenses used more or less interchangeably.
‘Up-to-now’contexts
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In ‘up-to-now’ sentences, typically with ‘for’ or ‘since’, English uses the perfect tense (often in the progressive). German always uses the PRESENTTENSE in such contexts (usually with seit or schon):
Ich studiere seit 6 Wochen dort. I’ve been studying there for 6 weeks. Er fährt seit 1990 jedes Jahr nach Dresden. Since 1990 he’sbeen going to Dresden every year. Wir warten schon eine Stunde auf euch! We’ve been waiting for you for an hour!
Action is typically expressed using the ‘default’ ACTIVEVOICE, 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 PASSIVEVOICE 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 TRANSITIVEVERB can be turned into passive sentences (a transitive verb takes a direct object, in the accusative case, see 1.3). The ACCUSATIVEOBJECT of the active sentence becomes the SUBJECT of the passive sentence:
Die Schlange frisst den Frosch
Der Frosch wird 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 bythe 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). past 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).
