Passive Voice
कर्मवाच्य (Passive Voice)
German forms the passive with werden + past participle — and here's a genuine, deep advantage for Hindi speakers: Hindi's own passive also uses 'जाना' (a verb of becoming) + participle, exactly the same structure as werden (to become) + participle!
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
werden + Partizip II, not sein — the same structure as Hindi's 'जाना'
Das Haus wird gebaut. (The house is being built.)
घर बनाया जा रहा है।
Here's a beautiful parallel: Hindi's passive "बनाया जा रहा है" uses 'जाना' as a helping verb, together with the participle (बनाया). German werden also fundamentally means 'to become' — exactly like Hindi's 'जाना', a 'becoming' helping verb. So Das Haus wird gebaut structurally matches Hindi's "घर बनाया जा रहा है" far more closely than English's "is built" (which uses 'to be' directly). Note: sein + participle marks something different in German — an already-completed state (the Zustandspassiv, a later topic): das Haus ist gebaut means 'the house is [already, as a state] built', while das Haus wird gebaut means 'the house is being built [in process]'.
The past-tense passive: wurde + Partizip II
Das Haus wurde 1990 gebaut. (The house was built in 1990.)
घर 1990 में बनाया गया था।
To form a passive sentence in the past, conjugate werden in the Präteritum (wurde, wurdest, wurde, wurden, wurdet, wurden) instead of the present forms (wird, wirst...) — much like shifting Hindi's "बनाया जाता है" to "बनाया गया था". Only the auxiliary changes; the participle (gebaut) stays fixed at the end of the clause.
The impersonal passive: even objectless verbs can go passive
Es wird viel gelacht. (There's a lot of laughing.)
बहुत हँसी हो रही है।
German can even passivize verbs that have no accusative object at all (lachen, tanzen, arbeiten) — something English simply cannot do. The dummy subject es fills the front slot, and the sentence describes an action happening generally, with no specific agent. If something else opens the sentence, es simply disappears: Hier wird viel gelacht ('There's a lot of laughing here').
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| German | Pronunciation | Hindi | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| wird gebaut | veert geh-BOWT | बनाया जा रहा हैbanāyā jā rahā hai | is being built |
| wird gemacht | veert geh-MAHKHT | किया जा रहा हैkiyā jā rahā hai | is being made / done |
| wird gegessen | veert geh-GES-en | खाया जा रहा हैkhāyā jā rahā hai | is being eaten |
| wird gesehen | veert geh-ZAY-en | देखा जा रहा हैdekhā jā rahā hai | is being seen |
| wird geschrieben | veert geh-SHREE-ben | लिखा जा रहा हैlikhā jā rahā hai | is being written |
| wird verkauft | veert fair-KOWFT | बेचा जा रहा हैbecā jā rahā hai | is being sold |
| wurde gebaut | VOOR-deh geh-BOWT | बनाया गया थाbanāyā gayā thā | was built |
| wurde gegründet | VOOR-deh geh-GRUEN-det | स्थापित किया गया थाsthāpit kiyā gayā thā | was founded |
| wurde eingeladen | VOOR-deh INE-geh-lah-den | आमंत्रित किया गया थाāmantrit kiyā gayā thā | was invited |
| wird geöffnet | veert geh-ERF-net | खोला जा रहा हैkholā jā rahā hai | is being opened |
| wird geschlossen | veert geh-SHLOS-en | बंद किया जा रहा हैband kiyā jā rahā hai | is being closed |