muss der Name und die Anschrift des Empfängers angegeben werden - does muss and werden in this sentence mean “must be”
muss = must
angegeben werden = be given/specified
werden means “become” but is also used to make up the passive voice, so in that case it would be rendered in English as “be”
This is a present = Das ist ein Geschenk
They give a present = Sie geben ein Geschenk
The present is given = Das Geschenk wird gegeben
Danke
Elaborating on the excellent explanation above, the three words together “muss angegeben werden” form a well used phrase which means “must be specified”
So your sentence above would translate as:
“The name and the address of the recipient must be specified”
There are 3 different verbs: i) muss ii) angegeben iii) werden
i) “muss”
“muss” from the verb “müssen” = must
a modal verb
ii) “angegeben”
“angegeben” past particle of the verb “angeben”
“angeben” = to declare, specify, state, quote, cite
“angegeben” = specified, stated, declared
iii) “werden”
“werden” a verb in its own right meaning grow, get, become, is also used for the passive voice, as in your example above. In this case, it needs the past particle of a verb along with werden, for example “werden” + past particle.
Some examples with “werden” forming the passive voice:
past particle + werden
(a) gegessen werden
(b) gebracht werden
(c) bestraft werden
(d) geredet werden
(e) geholfen werden
(f) getan werden
Examples of the above verbs being used in sentences to form the passive voice:
(a) der Kuchen kann jetzt gegessen werden = the cake can now be eaten
(b) danach wird es zurück zur Erde gebracht werden = after that it will be brought back to Earth
(c) er soll bestraft werden = he ought to be punished
(d) es darf nicht geredet werden = there’s no talking allowed
(e) ihm konnte nicht geholfen werden = he couldn’t be helped
(f) etwas muss getan werden = something must be done
All of the above sentences have 3 verbs just as in your example, although you can easily form the passive voice with two verbs alone.
A sentence with 2 verbs, still using the passive voice
werden + past particle
die Karte werden gedruckt = the cards are being printed
To summarise, muss + werden very often translates as “must be”
“Was gesagt werden muss” = What must be said
Günter Grass
Das muss gefeiert werden!
This calls for a celebration!
2 Likes
Thank you very much for your explanation,I have seen “muss …werden” many times but never really understood the meaning correctly but the two replys have really helped my understanding.
Thank you,
Brian