English hands you one slippery little verb — to be — and asks it to do two completely different jobs in the passive. "The house is built" can mean they are building it right now or it already stands, finished. English leaves you to guess from context. Afrikaans refuses to be vague: it uses two different auxiliaries for these two meanings, and once you see the split you can never un-see it. The dynamic passive (an action unfolding) takes word; the stative passive (a state that resulted from a completed action) takes is or was. This page is about choosing between them. The internal machinery of each construction lives on its own page — the word-passive and the is/was-passive — so here we focus purely on the decision.
The core distinction in one sentence
Use word when the action is happening (a process, ongoing, repeated, or about to happen); use is/was when you are describing the result of an action that is already over.
Die huis word gebou.
The house is being built. (the building is going on right now)
Die huis is gebou.
The house has been built. / The house is built. (it stands there, finished)
Both sentences contain the same participle, gebou. The only difference is the auxiliary — and that difference carries the entire meaning. word = action in motion. is = action completed, result visible.
Why English speakers get this wrong
The trap is the English progressive passive "is being built." Because the English phrase starts with "is," English speakers instinctively reach for Afrikaans is — and produce the wrong meaning. The English is being maps to Afrikaans word, not to Afrikaans is. Watch the mismatch:
| English | Meaning | Afrikaans |
|---|---|---|
| is being built | action in progress | word gebou |
| is built / has been built | finished result | is gebou |
| was being built | action in progress, in the past | is gebou (past of word) |
| was built / had been built | finished result, in the past | was gebou |
The two English phrases that look alike — "is being built" and "is built" — split cleanly in Afrikaans. The English ambiguity simply disappears. This is one of the rare cases where Afrikaans is more precise than English, and it is exactly the alignment that worse references blur.
Die brief word geskryf — wag net 'n oomblik.
The letter is being written — just wait a moment. (still in progress)
Die brief is geskryf en gepos.
The letter has been written and posted. (both done)
The participle is identical — only the auxiliary moves
It is worth dwelling on the fact that you do not change the verb itself. The past participle (gebou, geskryf, gesluit, gemaak) stays exactly the same in both passives. You are only ever swapping the helper. This makes the choice mechanically simple: decide process or result, then pick the auxiliary.
Die deur word gesluit — moenie nou uitgaan nie.
The door is being locked — don't go out now. (it is in the act of being locked)
Die deur is gesluit, so ons kan rustig slaap.
The door is locked, so we can sleep peacefully. (it is now in a locked state)
In the first, someone is turning the key as we speak. In the second, the locking is over and we are describing the resulting situation: the door is locked. The English "is locked" is again ambiguous; Afrikaans forces you to commit.
The past tense: is gebou vs was gebou
Here is where it gets genuinely subtle, so let us be exact about it. Afrikaans has no separate past form for word in the passive — instead, the past of the dynamic (word) passive is built with is + participle, while the stative result-in-the-past uses was + participle.
| Auxiliary | Aspect | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| word | dynamic, present | Die huis word gebou | is being built |
| is | dynamic, past | Die huis is gebou | was built / has been built |
| was | stative, past result | Die huis was al gebou | was already built (the state held at that earlier time) |
This is the one place the system overlaps confusingly with itself: is gebou is both the present stative ("is built / has been built") and the past of the dynamic passive ("was built"). Context resolves it, and frankly native speakers rarely notice the double duty. The clean contrast to fix in your mind is is gebou (it got built / it is built) versus was gebou (it was already in a built state at some earlier reference point).
Die brug is in 1932 gebou.
The bridge was built in 1932. (the building event happened then)
Teen die tyd wat ons daar aankom, was die brug al gebou.
By the time we arrived, the bridge had already been built. (the state held at that point)
A quick decision guide
When you reach for the passive, run this check:
- Is the action still going on, or general/repeated? → use word. (Die kos word elke dag gemaak. — The food is made every day.)
- Is the action finished, and am I describing the present result? → use is. (Die kos is klaar gemaak. — The food is already made.)
- Am I naming a past event? → use is. (Die kos is gister gemaak. — The food was made yesterday.)
- Am I describing a state that already held at an earlier time? → use was. (Die kos was al gemaak toe ons kom. — The food was already made when we came.)
Die rekeninge word aan die einde van elke maand betaal.
The bills are paid at the end of every month. (regular, ongoing process — word)
Die rekening is reeds betaal — moenie weer betaal nie.
The bill has already been paid — don't pay again. (finished result — is)
Common mistakes
❌ Die nuwe stadion is gebou op die oomblik.
Incorrect — 'at the moment' means the action is in progress, so this needs word, not is.
✅ Die nuwe stadion word op die oomblik gebou.
The new stadium is being built at the moment.
❌ My motor is nou herstel — ek wag nog.
Incorrect — if you're still waiting, the repair is ongoing; is wrongly says it's finished.
✅ My motor word nou herstel — ek wag nog.
My car is being repaired now — I'm still waiting.
❌ Die deur word gesluit, so ons is veilig.
Incorrect — describing the resulting safe state needs the stative is, not the in-progress word.
✅ Die deur is gesluit, so ons is veilig.
The door is locked, so we're safe.
❌ Die brief was geskryf gister.
Incorrect — naming yesterday's event uses is gebou-style is, not the stative was.
✅ Die brief is gister geskryf.
The letter was written yesterday.
Key takeaways
- word + participle = the dynamic passive: an action in progress, ongoing, or repeated (Die huis word gebou — is being built).
- is + participle = the stative passive: the finished result, or a past event (Die huis is gebou — is built / was built).
- English "is being built" maps to word; English "is built / has been built" maps to is — do not let the English "is" pull you to Afrikaans is.
- In the past, is gebou names the event ("was built"), while was gebou describes a state that already held at an earlier time ("had already been built").
- The participle never changes — you choose the meaning entirely through the auxiliary. See the full mechanics on the word-passive and the is/was-passive, and how these stack with modals on passive modal stacks.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The Passive with wordB1 — How Afrikaans forms the dynamic (action) passive with word plus a past participle, and why word — not is — is the auxiliary for an action being carried out.
- The Stative Passive with is/wasB2 — How Afrikaans uses is plus a past participle for the perfect passive ('has been written') and the resulting-state passive ('is written'), with was for the past.
- Passive-Modal CombinationsB2 — How modals and the word-passive stack into a single fixed verb cluster — moet gedoen word — and how negation wraps around it.
- Choosing Between Confusable Forms: OverviewB1 — A guide to the Afrikaans 'which one?' problems — maak vs doen, neem vs vat, na vs toe, jy vs u and more — and why most of them hinge on register or word order rather than meaning.