Verbs: the Passive
| What is it? | Why?
| How to: Present Tense | How
to: Imperfect Tense | How to: Perfect
Tense | Other Options |
| Things to Watch Out For | the practice exercises |
How to use the Passive - Imperfect Tense
This is formed/used by using the imperfect tense of WERDEN, and the participle
of the other relevant verb.
You can check the participle of strong verbs in the Strong
Verb List. If not in the list, it's a weak verb, works like machen = gemacht.
Imperfect Tense
| ich wurde... du wurdest... er/sie/es wurde... wir wurden... ihr wurdet... sie/Sie wurden... |
+ participle (e.g. gemacht) |
e.g.
ACTIVE: Der Junge brach das Fenster. (The boy broke the
window.)
brechen (to break) 
participle = gebrochen
PASSIVE: Das Fenster wurde von dem Jungen gebrochen. (The
window was broken/got broken by the boy.)
ACTIVE: Der Briefträger holte die Pakete am Bahnhof ab. (The
postman collected the parcels at the station.)
abholen (to collect/fetch)
participle = abgeholt
PASSIVE: Die Pakete wurden am Bahnhof vom (= von dem) Briefträger abgeholt.
(The parcels were collected/got collected at the station
by the postman.)
(Old technology) "This cassette was developed for use in..."
The English-language version doesn't use the Imperfect tense - it uses the verb as an adjective.
Einbruch und Diebstahl!
- Ein Zeitungsbericht. (D Nutting)
[The criminal was still unknown to police when the journalist wrote this report.
In written German the Passive is used more often in the IMPERFECT Tense than
in the Present Tense.]