The Dutch Passive Voice and The Impersonal

The Dutch Passive Voice. A worksheet on the passive construction, the tenses in the passive and the impersonal passive.

The Dutch Passive Voice

Formation of the passive in Dutch

In Dutch, to form the passive voice ‘zijn‘ and ‘worden‘ are used.

Zijn (to be) and worden (to become) are irregular verbs.

The past participle is used to form the passive, like in English.

There is, however, one important difference. Just compare the English and Dutch phrases below.

English	Auxiliary verb	Dutch	Auxiliary verb
My hair is washed	to be	Mijn haar wordt gewassen	worden
My hair was washed	to be	Mijn haar werd gewassen	worden
My hair has been washed	to be	Mijn haar is gewassen	zijn
My hair had been washed	to be	Mijn haar was gewassen	zijn

Note that in English, they use ‘is’ and ‘was’ for the simple tense, whereas in Dutch, they use the exact same words for the perfect tense.

In English, they use the same verb for both the simple and the perfect tenses (to be). In the examples above, they used ‘to be’. In Dutch, on the other hand, they use two different verbs: worden and zijn.

Worden and zijn

Worden is used if the event is still going on at this particular moment. In English they would use the simple tense of to be, to become or, sometimes, to get.

Zijn is used when we want to express that an event has already occurred or been done (perfect tense). In English, they would use the perfect tense of ‘to be’.

Content

Level

This lesson can be used for adults from intermediate to advanced levels.

Aim

The aim of this lesson is to learn the passive in Dutch

Preparation

First print out the worksheet, then copy a worksheet for each student in the class.

Procedure

Go through the grammar and exercises together.