The passive in the present

German notices, instructions and status updates are full of one pattern: wird … repariert, wird … geschrieben, wird … vorbereitet. It is the passive, and the first job is simply to recognise it.

werden (conjugated) + Partizip II at the end. That is the whole form.

Both halves are already yours. You know werden from the future, and you know the Partizip II from the Perfekt. The passive just pairs them differently.

• Das Auto wird repariert.

  The car is being repaired.

  who repairs it is not said — and does not matter

• Die E-Mail wird geschrieben.

  The email is being written.

• Das Essen wird vorbereitet.

  The food is being prepared.

• Deutsch wird hier gesprochen.

  German is spoken here.

• Die Bremsen werden kontrolliert.

  The brakes are being checked.

  plural subject → werden

Watch the one trap while you are reading. wird + infinitive is the future; wird + Partizip II is the passive. Er wird kommen = he will come. Es wird gemacht* = it is being done.

wird + infinitive → future. wird + ge…t / ge…en → passive.

Why does German bother? Because the passive puts the thing first and leaves the doer out. That is exactly what you want on a sign (Hier wird nicht geraucht), in a status update (Das Problem wird heute repariert), or whenever who did it is obvious or irrelevant.

Now the small amount of production. Turning an active sentence into a passive one is mechanical: the accusative object becomes the subject, and the verb becomes wird + participle.

• Die Firma baut das Haus.

  The company is building the house.

  active: the company is the subject

• Das Haus wird von der Firma gebaut.

  The house is being built by the company.

  passive: das Haus is now the subject, the firm moves behind von

The doer, if you mention it at all, goes after von — and von takes the dative.

Most of the time you simply leave the doer out, which is the whole point: Das Haus wird gebaut. Add von … only when it genuinely matters who is doing it.

• Der Termin wird verschoben.

  The appointment is being moved.

• Die Wohnung wird von meinem Bruder renoviert.

  The flat is being renovated by my brother.

  von + dative: meinem Bruder

• Das Fahrrad, das repariert wird, gehört mir.

  The bike that is being repaired is mine.

  inside a relative clause the whole block still goes to the end