The Dutch Passive Voice: worden + Past Participle — B1 Dutch Grammar Course, Lesson 9 | My Dutch Journal

The Dutch Passive Voice: worden + Past Participle | B1 Dutch, Lesson 9

July 4, 2026

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Welcome to B1 Lesson nine. In this lesson, you learn about the passief — the passive voice. In Dutch it is called the lijdende vorm — the form where the subject undergoes the action. In the passive, the subject does not perform the action — it undergoes the action. "Het huis wordt geschilderd. The house is being painted. The house is not painting anything — it is being painted. By the end of this lesson, you will know how to form the passive in all four tenses, how to name the person who performed the action using door," and how to express general activities using the er-passive.

Active vs. passive

The difference between active and passive is about the role of the subject. In an active sentence, the subject does something: "De schilder schildert het huis. The painter paints the house — the painter is the subject, and he is performing the action. In a passive sentence, the subject undergoes the action: Het huis wordt geschilderd. The house is being painted. The house is not doing anything — it is receiving the action. The key transformation rule is: the direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. The painter — the original subject — disappears. Look at the examples. De dokter onderzoekt de patiënt — the doctor examines the patient. Passive: De patiënt wordt onderzocht. Ze sluiten de winkels om zes uur. Passive: De winkels worden om zes uur gesloten. And when the original subject is included: Dit boek wordt door iedereen gelezen. One note: when the subject of the passive is singular, use wordt. When it is plural, use worden."

How do you form the passive?

The present passive is formed with one of two auxiliary verbs — "wordt for a singular subject and worden for a plural subject — followed by the past participle at the end of the sentence. De krant wordt elke ochtend bezorgd. The newspaper is delivered every morning. Wordt, because de krant is singular. Bezorgd goes to the end. De kinderen worden naar school gebracht. The children are brought to school. Worden, because de kinderen is plural. Gebracht goes to the end. One important warning: the past participle you use in the passive is exactly the same form you already know from the present perfect. Gebracht, geopend, gegeven — these are the same past participles. But in the passive, they do NOT mean that something happened in the past. De krant wordt bezorgd" is the present tense, happening right now or regularly. Do not confuse the past participle form with the past tense.

Passive in all four tenses

Once you know the present passive, the other tenses follow a simple pattern — only the auxiliary verb changes, and the past participle always stays the same. In the present, you use "wordt or worden. In the past, you replace that with werd or werden. In the present perfect, the auxiliary becomes is or zijn. In the past perfect, it becomes was or waren. Look at de brief — the letter — across all four tenses. De brief wordt vandaag verstuurd. The letter is being sent today — present passive. De brief werd gisteren verstuurd. The letter was sent yesterday — past passive. De brief is al verstuurd. The letter has been sent — present perfect passive. De brief was al verstuurd toen hij belde. The letter had already been sent when he called — past perfect passive. The singular forms are: wordt, werd, is, was. The plural forms are: worden, werden, zijn, waren. The participle verstuurd" never changes.

Passive + door — naming the performer

By default, the passive sentence removes the performer of the action. But if you want to name who did it, you add "door — meaning by — followed by the agent. De patiënt wordt door de chirurg geopereerd. The patient is operated on by the surgeon. De brief werd door de secretaresse verstuurd. The letter was sent by the secretary. Dit schilderij is door een bekende kunstenaar gemaakt. This painting was made by a well-known artist. The door-phrase typically goes before the past participle — between the auxiliary verb and the participle. It can also go after the participle, and both positions are grammatically correct. The natural question to ask after a passive sentence is Door wie? — By whom? Door wie wordt dit boek geschreven?" This works in all four tenses and with all passive types.

Er-passive — a general action with no specific subject

Sometimes a passive sentence has no specific subject at all. In English you might say people are working hard or there is hard work going on. Dutch uses the er-passive for exactly this. "Er wordt hard gewerkt op kantoor. People are working hard at the office. Er takes the position of the subject, but it is a placeholder — there is no specific person being referred to. Er wordt 's avonds samen gegeten. People eat together in the evening. Er wordt elke zaterdag gevoetbald. People play football every Saturday — no specific players named. In this no-specific-subject pattern, use wordt. For word order: in a basic main clause, er comes in the subject position. After inversion — when something else starts the sentence — er follows the auxiliary: Op kantoor wordt er hard gewerkt. In a subclause, er comes right after the conjunction: dat er op kantoor hard wordt gewerkt. One restriction: the er-passive works with activity verbs that take hebben in the present perfect. Verbs like groeien, vallen, and slagen — which use zijn" and signal a change of state — cannot be turned into an er-passive.

Key Takeaways

Let us review the four key things from this lesson. First: the passive is formed when the subject of the sentence undergoes the action rather than performing it. The direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive. The original performer disappears — or is added with "door. Second: the present passive uses wordt for singular and worden for plural, followed by the past participle at the end. The past participle form is the same as in the present perfect, but this is still the present tense. Third: in all four tenses, only the auxiliary verb changes. Wordt and worden in the present. Werd and werden in the past. Is and zijn in the present perfect. Was and waren in the past perfect. The past participle never changes. Fourth: when you want to name who performed the action, add door plus the agent. The er-passive — er wordt gewerkt — expresses a general activity with no specific subject, and works with hebben-verbs only. And in formal Dutch you will often see: Het pakket kan worden opgehaald." — The package can be picked up.

Practice What You Learned

Reading about grammar is step one — using it is what makes it stick. In My Dutch Journal Academy you can watch the full video of this lesson, do interactive exercises that check your answers instantly, and practise all the vocabulary from the B1 course.