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Passive voice - Tenses
Present tense
The present tense passive uses the present tense of the verb werden as a helping verb, with the past participle of the main verb.

Heute wird alles ausgeräumt.
Die Milch wird langsam gekocht.
Diese Probleme werden nicht leicht gelöst.
Today everything is being cleared out.
The milk is boiled slowly.
These problems are not easily solved.
 Exercise

Other tenses
The other tenses in the passive voice use the tense forms of the helping verb werden, together with the past participle of the main verb. The past participle form of werden in the passive voice is worden, rather than geworden.

Simple past
Das Problem wurde gelöst.
The problem was solved.
Compound past
Das Problem ist gelöst worden.
The problem has been solved.
Past perfect
Das Problem war gelöst worden.
The problem had been solved.
Future
Das Problem wird gelöst werden.
The problem will be solved.
Future perfect
Das Problem wird gelöst worden sein.
The problem will have been solved.

 

 

© 1997 by Gary Smith
Revised 2023