Sentence types - Zinstypen

Formation of the passive predicate

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There are different rules for the formation of the passive in:

(a) the present and past (imperfect) tenses;
(b) the perfect and pluperfect tenses;
(c) when the passive sentence contains a modal verb.


PRESENT AND PAST

The present tense of the passive is formed by combining the past participle of a verb with a special auxiliary: worden.

Have a look at the following active sentence. The >>subject is underlined, the finite verb is in italics and the >>direct object is bold:

Marieke wast de auto.
Marieke washes the car.

To turn this into a passive sentence, you undertake the following steps:

1. Find the direct object, because this becomes the grammatical subject in the passive sentence; de auto

2. Find the finite verb; wast

3. determine the infinitive; wassen

4. determine the past participle; gewassen

5. Decide on the form of the auxiliary worden: it has to match the subject in number third person singular) and it has to match the tense ( present tense); wordt

6. Find the subject, because it can be included in the passive sentence with the preposition door; Marieke

7. Combine these elements according to the rules for sentence formation in Dutch:


De auto (1) wordt (5) gewassen (4) door Marieke (6).
The car is washed by Marieke.

or

De auto (1) wordt (5) door Marieke (6) gewassen (4).
The car is washed by Marieke.

In the past tense the appropriate form of the verb worden (plus the past participle of the main verb) is used. Worden is a >>strong verb: the vowel changes from o to e: werd (singular)/werden (plural).

active (imperfect) passive (imperfect)
De Arbeiderspers publiceerde gisteren het nieuwe boek van De Vries.
The Arbeiderspers published the new book by De Vries yesterday.		 Het nieuwe boek van De Vries werd gisteren gepubliceerd door de Arbeiderspers.
De Vries' new book was published by the Arbeiderspers yesterday.


PERFECT TENSE and PLUPERFECT TENSE

The perfect tenses of the passive are formed by combining the past participle of a verb with a special auxiliary, which is different from the special auxiliary for the present and the past tense. The passive auxiliary for the present and the past is worden, whereas the passive auxiliary for the (plu)perfect it is zijn.

This is different from English (and French and German too) where there is one passive auxiliary for all tenses: to be.

The form of zijn must match the subject of the passive sentence in number: in the singular ben (1st person or 2nd person with >inversion), bent (2nd person) or is (3rd person); in the plural zijn.

active (perfect) passive (perfect)
De Arbeiderspers heeft het nieuwe boek van De Vries gepubliceerd.
The Arbeiderspers has published the new book by De Vries.		 Het nieuwe boek van De Vries is gepubliceerd door de Arbeiderspers.
De Vries new book has been published by the Arbeiderspers.

In the pluperfect the imperfect tense forms of zijn are used: was in the singular and waren in the plural.

active (pluperfect) passive (pluperfect)
De Arbeiderspers had het nieuwe boek van De Vries gepubliceerd.
The Arbeiderspers had published the new book by De Vries.		 Het nieuwe boek van De Vries was gepubliceerd door de Arbeiderspers.
De Vries new book had been published by the Arbeiderspers.

The use of the perfect tense in a passive sentence has >repercussions for the agent of such a sentence.

PASSIVE WITH A MODAL VERB

There is no future 'tense' in Dutch. Instead, the future is expressed in different ways. One of the most common ways to express future aspect is by using a finite form of the modal verb zullen, plus the infinitive of the 'action' verb. In the future passive the auxiliary worden is included in this as well. So in the future passive the appropriate tense of the modal verb zullen is used along with the infinitive of worden plus the past participle of the main verb. As with the present tense of the passive voice, the form of zullen matches the subject of the passive sentence in number. It works the same for other modal verbs (for example kunnen, moeten and mogen).

active passive
De Arbeiderspers zal morgen het nieuwe boek van De Vries publiceren.
The Arbeiderspers will publish the new book by De Vries tomorrow.		 Het nieuwe boek van De Vries zal morgen gepubliceerd worden door de Arbeiderspers.
De Vries' new book will be published by the Arbeiderspers tomorrow .

The auxiliary worden and the past participle of the 'action' verb occur in an arbitrary order: Het boek zal worden gepubliceerd is just as acceptable as Het boek zal gepubliceerd worden.

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