Passive Voice

영어에서, 우리는 수동태를 만들기 위해서 to be와 과거 분사를 더해서 사용합니다. 독일어에서도 유사하게 쓰이지만 조동사는 werden을 사용합니다.

Unsere Fehler wurden von ihm korrigiert.
Our mistakes were corrected by him.

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조동사는 우리에게 행동의 시간에 대한 정보를 주고, 분사는 우리에게 무슨 일이 일어났는지 말해줍니다.

그래서 이것은 우리가 독일어로 수동태 문장을 만들기 위해서는 단지 werden의 동사 활용에 대해서 알아야만 한다는 것을 의미합니다.

Das Haus wird gebaut.
The house is being built.

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If we ever have cause to use the future passive, we end up with two forms of werden in the same sentence, though it's none the worse for understanding.

Die Autos werden gekauft werden.
The cars will be bought.

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It turns out that, stylistically, German uses the passive significantly less than English does.

Instead of:	Hier wird Deutsch gesprochen.
	German is spoken here.
try:	PHier spricht man Deutsch.
	One speaks German here. (German is spoken here.)

There's one other structure that sort of overlaps with the passive voice semantically.

If we use lassen as a helping verb (plus infinitive), it has the sense of "having something done" without being involved. Kind of like a passive related to yourself, as you're not an active participant in the events.

Ich lasse mein Auto reparieren.
I'm having my car repaired.

Er lässt seine Fenster waschen.
He's having his windows washed.