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20
The
passive
134
present Het huis wordt The house is (being, getting)
gebouwd. built.
imperfect Het huis werd The house was (being) built.
gebouwd.
present perfect Het huis is gebouwd. The house has been/was built.
past perfect Het huis was gebouwd. The house had been built.
What exactly does it mean?
The translations in the examples above are not very useful for understanding
how to use the passive in Dutch. Looking at the sentences again, here are
some more descriptive translations.
Het huis wordt gebouwd.
They are in the process of building the house, it is currently being built.
Het huis werd gebouwd.
They were building the house. The building was going on a while ago,
but had not been completed yet.
Het huis is gebouwd.
The house is finished, it has been built.
Het huis was gebouwd.
The house had already been built before a certain point in the speaker’s
history.
Het huis was 10 jaar voordat ik erin trok gebouwd.
The house had been built ten years before I moved in.
The passive with emphasis on the object of the action
When the object of an action needs emphasis, this object will be the subject
of the passive sentence. Examples, with the subjects in italics:
Het huis wordt deze week geschilderd.
The house is being painted this week. (Or better: They are painting the
house this week.)
Erik wordt morgen geopereerd.
Erik is going to be operated on (or: is going to have an operation)
tomorrow.
De film werd in vier kranten besproken.
The film was reviewed in four newspapers.
De auto is gisteren gerepareerd.
The car was fixed yesterday. (Or: They fixed the car yesterday.)