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Lesson 29B1

Passive Voice

కర్మణి వాక్యం (-బడు)

German builds the passive with werden plus a past participle — and Telugu happens to have a strikingly close match of its own: the -బడు auxiliary, which attaches directly to a verb stem to flip it passive, one of the tightest structural parallels between German and Telugu anywhere in this course.

Grammar Comparison

వ్యాకరణ పోలిక

werden + participle ≈ Telugu's -బడు auxiliary

German

Das Haus wird gebaut. (The house is being built — werden + built)

Telugu

ఇల్లు నిర్మించబడుతోంది. (illu nirminchabadutondi — house build-బడు-తోంది — బడు carries the passive meaning)

Many languages have to route around not having a dedicated passive construction, but Telugu has one built directly into its verb morphology: the auxiliary -బడు (badu, related to పడు, 'to fall/undergo') attaches to a verb stem to produce a true passive, functioning exactly the way werden does in German. నిర్మించు (nirminchu, 'to build') plus బడు gives నిర్మించబడు ('to be built'), and నిర్మించబడింది ('it was built') lines up almost morpheme-for-morpheme with wurde gebaut — auxiliary-plus-base-verb doing the same grammatical job in both languages. This is one of the closest structural matches anywhere in this course.

Vocabulary

పదజాలం

wird gebautveert geh-BOWT
Telugu
నిర్మించబడుతోందిnirminchabadutondi
English
is being built
wird gemachtveert geh-MAHKHT
Telugu
చేయబడుతోందిcheyabadutondi
English
is being made / done
wird gegessenveert geh-GES-en
Telugu
తినబడుతోందిthinabadutondi
English
is being eaten
wurde gebautVOOR-deh geh-BOWT
Telugu
నిర్మించబడిందిnirminchabadindi
English
was built
wird gesehenveert geh-ZAY-en
Telugu
చూడబడుతోందిchudabadutondi
English
is being seen