Two things separate advanced learners from intermediate ones when it comes to the passive. First, German can passivize a verb that has no object at all — the impersonal passive (Es wird getanzt, "there is dancing"). Second, German often avoids the passive entirely in favour of slicker constructions like man, sich lassen, and sein + zu. A natural German text uses far fewer werden-passives than a literal translation from English would. This page covers both ideas.
The impersonal passive: passivizing the activity itself
In English a passive needs something to become the subject ("the cake was eaten"). German can go one step further and passivize a purely intransitive verb — one with no object to promote. There is then no real subject, so German plugs the dummy pronoun es into the first slot. The result focuses entirely on the activity, with nobody in view.
Es wird getanzt.
There is dancing (going on). — the activity itself, no dancers named.
Hier wird hart gearbeitet.
Hard work is done here. / People work hard here. — note: no 'es' because 'hier' fills the first slot.
Sonntags wird ausgeschlafen.
On Sundays one sleeps in. — a cosy household rule, agentless.
The es is only a placeholder for the front of the sentence. The moment any other element (an adverb like hier, sonntags, jetzt) occupies that front slot, the es vanishes — it was never a true subject, just a seat-filler.
| Front slot | Sentence |
|---|---|
| es (placeholder) | Es wird hier nicht geraucht. |
| hier | Hier wird nicht geraucht. |
| bei uns | Bei uns wird nicht geraucht. |
Hier wird nicht geraucht.
No smoking here. / Smoking is not done here. — the standard agentless prohibition.
Note that only verbs describing controllable activities allow this (tanzen, arbeiten, rauchen, lachen, helfen). You cannot do it with state verbs or unaccusatives of pure happening.
Alternative 1: man + active verb
The single most common substitute for the passive is man ("one / people / they"), with a perfectly ordinary active verb. Where English reaches for "you can," "they say," or a passive, German often just says man.
Man baut hier ein neues Krankenhaus.
A new hospital is being built here. — literally 'one is building'; far more idiomatic than the passive.
In Deutschland isst man oft Brot zum Abendessen.
In Germany bread is often eaten for dinner. / people eat bread...
Use man when the doer is human and unspecified. It keeps the sentence active, light, and natural — see the man-vs-passive comparison for when each wins.
Alternative 2: sich lassen + infinitive ("can be ...ed")
sich lassen + a bare infinitive expresses possibility — that something can be done. It replaces a modal passive like kann gemacht werden with something far more idiomatic.
Das lässt sich machen.
That can be done. / That's doable. — a hugely common, natural reply.
Der Fleck lässt sich leider nicht mehr entfernen.
The stain unfortunately can no longer be removed.
Notice the logic: kann entfernt werden (modal passive) and lässt sich entfernen (sich lassen) mean almost the same thing, but the sich lassen version sounds lighter and more spoken.
Alternative 3: sein + zu + infinitive ("is to be ...ed")
sein + zu + infinitive carries a shade of either necessity ("is to be done", "must be done") or possibility ("can be done"), read from context. It is concise and common in instructions, notices, and formal prose.
Das ist bis Freitag zu erledigen.
This is to be done by Friday. (necessity — formal/official)
Die Formulare sind vollständig auszufüllen.
The forms are to be filled in completely. — note the separable verb: 'aus...zufüllen'. (formal)
Von hier aus ist das Schloss gut zu sehen.
From here the castle can be seen well. (possibility)
This construction is roughly equivalent to muss erledigt werden / kann gesehen werden, but tighter — which is exactly why officialdom loves it.
Alternative 4: -bar adjectives ("...able")
The suffix -bar turns a verb into an adjective meaning "able to be ...ed" — the German cousin of English -able. It packs a whole passive-possibility clause into one word.
| Verb | -bar adjective | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| machen | machbar | doable |
| essen | essbar | edible |
| lesen | lesbar | legible / readable |
| erreichen | erreichbar | reachable / available |
Der Plan ist absolut machbar.
The plan is absolutely doable. (= can be done)
Diese Pilze sind nicht essbar.
These mushrooms are not edible. (= cannot be eaten)
The big-picture insight
English overuses the passive partly because its alternatives are clumsy ("one does," "it is doable" sound stiff). German has the opposite habit: man, sich lassen, sein + zu, and -bar are all crisp and idiomatic, so good German prose leans on them and reserves the full werden-passive for cases where the action genuinely needs to be foregrounded with its result. If you translate from English clause-by-clause, you will produce far too many werden-passives and sound foreign.
Common Mistakes
❌ Es wird hier ein Haus gebaut, das von der Stadt gebaut wird, das gebaut werden wird.
Incorrect style — stacking werden-passives where 'man' is far more natural.
✅ Man baut hier ein neues Haus.
A new house is being built here. — 'man' keeps it active and natural.
❌ Das kann gemacht werden, kein Problem.
Not wrong, but stilted in casual speech — German prefers 'sich lassen' here.
✅ Das lässt sich machen, kein Problem.
That can be done, no problem. — idiomatic spoken German.
❌ Es wird hier getanzt jeden Freitag.
Incorrect word order — the time phrase wants the front slot, dropping the placeholder 'es'.
✅ Jeden Freitag wird hier getanzt.
There's dancing here every Friday. — front slot filled, no 'es'.
❌ Diese Aufgabe ist zu machbar.
Incorrect — '-bar' is an adjective; you don't combine it with 'zu' + infinitive. Pick one construction.
✅ Diese Aufgabe ist machbar. / Diese Aufgabe ist zu machen.
This task is doable. / This task is to be done.
❌ Hier es wird nicht geraucht.
Incorrect — once 'hier' takes the front slot, there is no room for 'es'.
✅ Hier wird nicht geraucht.
No smoking here.
Key Takeaways
- The impersonal passive focuses on the activity with no subject: Es wird getanzt; the es is just a front-slot filler that disappears when something else fronts (Hier wird getanzt).
- German routinely replaces the passive: man
- active, sich lassen
- infinitive (= can be done), sein + zu
- infinitive (= is to/can be done), and -bar adjectives (= ...able).
- infinitive (= can be done), sein + zu
- active, sich lassen
- Translating English passives one-to-one produces unnatural German — reach for these alternatives first.
Now practice German
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- The Werden-Passive (Vorgangspassiv)B1 — How to form and use the German process passive with werden plus the past participle, including the tricky Perfekt form ist gebaut worden.
- The Impersonal Pronoun manA2 — man means 'one / you / they / people in general,' always takes a singular verb, borrows its oblique forms from einer, and is German's everyday substitute for the passive.
- man vs the PassiveB2 — When to use the indefinite pronoun man (one/you/they + active verb) versus the werden-passive to express agentless or general actions — and why natural German uses far fewer passives than English.
- The zu-InfinitiveB1 — When German uses zu + infinitive at the end of a clause, when it doesn't (modals and perception verbs take a bare infinitive), and where zu goes inside separable verbs.
- Passive with Modal VerbsB2 — How to combine a modal verb with the passive in German: modal + past participle + werden, with correct word order.