The Dutch passive with worden and zijn

In an active sentence the subject does the action: De bakker bakt het brood. (The baker bakes the bread.) In a passive sentence (in Dutch, the lijdende vorm) the thing the action is done to becomes the subject: Het brood wordt gebakken. (The bread is baked.) Who does it can be left out or added later.

Build the passive from a form of worden (to become) or zijn (to be) plus the past participle of the main verb, with the participle at the end of the clause.

1. Make the object of the active sentence the new subject: het brood.
2. Add the right form of worden or zijn in second position (see below for which one).
3. Put the past participle at the end: Het brood wordt gebakken.

You need the forms of worden: ik word, jij/hij wordt, wij/jullie/zij worden in the present; werd (singular) and werden (plural) in the past.

Use worden for an action that is (or was) still going on; use zijn for the finished result of that action. This is the main trap for English speakers, because English uses to be for both.

• worden = the action is happening: De ramen worden gewassen. (The windows are being washed — someone is busy with them.)
• zijn = the action is done and the result is there: De ramen zijn gewassen. (The windows are washed — clean now.)
• So is/was + participle in Dutch is the perfect passive, not the simple present. Where English says 'the house is sold' as a finished fact, Dutch says Het huis is verkocht; while it is on the market it is Het huis wordt verkocht.

To say by whom the action is done — the agent — use door (by) with that person, usually in the middle of the clause before the participle.

• Het brood wordt door de bakker gebakken. (The bread is baked by the baker.)
• De les werd door een gastdocent gegeven. (The lesson was given by a guest teacher.)
• The door-phrase is optional. Dutch often leaves the agent out when it is unknown or unimportant: Er wordt aan gewerkt. (It is being worked on.)

Do not translate English 'is/was' straight into is/was + participle. English the letter is written (right now) is De brief wordt geschreven with worden; De brief is geschreven means it is already finished. Watch the same difference with the past: werd is the action in progress, was is the completed result. The choice mirrors the perfect tense, where the participle also goes to the end of the clause.