The passive voice in German (Passiv) is an important part of grammar and can be confusing for learners. Besides the ordinary passive structure, learners may come across the passive structure with es, and substitute structures for the passive with man and jemand. Today's article introduces them.

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***Passive structure: …+ werden +….. Partizip II 

Der Student wird von einem Arzt operiert.

(This student is operated on by the doctor.)

1. Passiv mit es

• If the active sentence has no direct object in the Akkusativ, then when changing to the passive we must use "es" as a dummy subject. The verb in the sentence is conjugated in the third person for ‘’es’’. Other elements such as the indirect object, prepositional phrases, etc. remain unchanged when converted to the passive.

a. Ich helfe ihm (Dativ). (I help him.) 

       → Passiv: Es wird ihm (Dativ) geholfen. (He is helped.)

b. Ich sorge gut für alle Gäste. (I take good care of all the guests.)

        → Passiv: Es wird für alle Gäste gut gesorgt. (All the guests are well taken care of.)

• If the active sentence has the indefinite pronoun ‘’man’’ as its subject and has no object, its passive form is the passive with ‘’es’’.

Man arbeitet. (People work.)

       → Passiv: Es wird gearbeitet. (Work is being done.)

1. Passiv mit man

• A passive sentence can be changed into an active sentence with ‘’man’’, but that sentence still has a passive meaning.

Heute wird das Auto (vom Mechaniker) repariert. (Today the car is repaired by the mechanic.)

= Heute repariert man das Auto. (Today the car is repaired.)

→ The agent with “von” + Dativ is omitted in the sentence with “man” as the subject. 

• Passive sentences with modal verbs (Modalverben) can also be written as sentences with a passive meaning using ‘’man”.

Das Paket kann morgen abgeholt werden. (The package can be picked up tomorrow.)

= Man kann das Paket morgen abholen. 

1. Passiv with jemand

• Sometimes the indefinite pronoun “jemand” in an active clause can also be used as a substitute for a passive clause.

Hier wird ein Haus gebaut. (A house is being built here.)

= Hier baut jemand ein Haus. (A house is being built here.)

    → In the sentence with ‘’jemand’’, the agent performing the action is also omitted.

• When the action applies to everyone, ‘’man’’ (everyone) should be used instead of ‘’jemand’’ (singular).

Hier darf geparkt werden. 

⇏ Hier darf jemand parken. (Someone is allowed to park here.)

→ However, parking is a right of everyone, so in this case ‘’man” must be used instead of ‘’jemand’’: Hier darf man parken. (Parking is allowed here.)