The Passive Voice: vera/verða + Participle

English has essentially one passive — "the letter is written," "the house was painted" — and it works the same way no matter what you mean. Icelandic splits that single English construction along two axes at once, and both will feel foreign. First, it chooses between two auxiliaries, vera ("to be") for a finished state and verða ("to become") for an unfolding event. Second, the past participle is not a fixed, frozen form the way English "written" is — it is an adjective, and like every Icelandic adjective it must agree with the subject in gender, number, and case. This page covers that periphrastic passive. (The reflexive-looking middle passive in -st and the subjectless impersonal passive each have their own page — see verbs/middle-voice-overview and verbs/impersonal-passive.)

The shape of the construction: auxiliary + agreeing participle

The periphrastic passive is two pieces: an auxiliary (vera or verða), conjugated for tense and to agree with the subject, plus the past participle of the main verb, which carries adjective endings. Take skrifa ("to write"), whose participle stem is skrifað-. The participle inflects exactly like a strong adjective:

• masculine singular: skrifaður
• feminine singular: skrifuð
• neuter singular: skrifað

So the subject's gender directly changes the ending on the participle:

This is the first big mental adjustment. In English the participle never moves: "is written" is "is written" whether the subject is a letter, a book, or a contract. In Icelandic the participle is doing two jobs at once — naming the action and agreeing with the subject like any predicate adjective.

vera vs verða: a finished state vs an event happening

This is the distinction English does not make at all, and the one worth slowing down on. vera + participle describes a resulting state — the situation as it now stands, the outcome already in place. verða + participle describes a dynamic event — something that gets done, an action that takes place. The contrast is close to the difference between "the house is painted" (it currently sits there painted) and "the house gets painted" (the painting happens), but Icelandic forces the choice every time.

Look at how the time adverbials pull each auxiliary. A point-in-time or future event invites verða; a description of the standing result invites vera. In the past tense the same split holds — var málað describes the state that held, while a one-off completed event is most naturally framed with verða:

A practical rule of thumb: if you can paraphrase with English "get/got + participle" ("the window got broken"), reach for verða. If you mean "is/was in the state of being…," reach for vera.

Plural agreement: the participle goes plural too

Because the participle is an adjective, plural subjects take plural participle endings. The strong adjective plural for the participle of lesa ("to read," participle stem les-) gives lesnir (m.pl.), lesnar (f.pl.), lesin (n.pl.). Watch the participle track the subject:

Notice voru (the plural past of vera) as well: the auxiliary also agrees in number, just as in English ("were"). What is new for the English speaker is that the participle agrees a second time — lesnar, opnaðir, send — where English leaves "read," "opened," "sent" untouched.

Naming the agent: af + dative

When you want to say by whom the action was done, Icelandic uses af ("by") plus the dative. English "by" does the same job, but the noun after Icelandic af must go into the dative case:

As in English, the agent phrase is optional and often omitted — the whole point of a passive is frequently to leave the doer unmentioned. Bókin var skrifuð ("the book was written") is complete on its own.

The big picture: one English passive, three Icelandic strategies

Here is the insight that competitors skip and that will save you the most grief. A single English passive can correspond to three different Icelandic constructions, and choosing the periphrastic vera/verða passive is not always the most natural option. Train yourself to triage:

1. Periphrastic passive (this page): vera/verða
   • participle. Best when the subject is a specific, definite thing and you want to foreground it: bókin var skrifuð ("the book was written").
2. The middle voice in -st (see verbs/middle-voice-overview): many verbs form a passive-like meaning by adding -st. Dyrnar opnuðust ("the door opened / was opened") feels more natural than a full periphrastic passive for spontaneous-seeming events.
3. The generic subject maður ("one / people / you"): Icelandic very often avoids the passive entirely with an active sentence whose subject is maður. Where English says "Icelandic is spoken here," Icelandic happily says hér talar maður íslensku — literally "here one speaks Icelandic."

So when you feel the urge to build an English-style passive, pause and ask: is the doer genuinely irrelevant and the patient definite? If yes, the periphrastic passive fits. If you are really describing a spontaneous-looking change, the -st middle is usually better. If you are making a general statement about what people do, maður is more idiomatic. Reaching for the full vera/verða passive every time is a classic over-translation from English.

A note on the participle's case

In the basic passive the subject is nominative, so the participle takes nominative endings — the forms shown above. But because the participle is a genuine adjective, in constructions where the subject sits in another case (for instance inside certain quirky-subject or infinitival frames), the participle will take that case too. You will meet this later; for now, just hold onto the principle: the participle agrees in case as well as gender and number. It is not an exception waiting to ambush you — it is the same adjective rule applied consistently.

Common Mistakes

The number-one error: leaving the participle in its neuter-singular dictionary shape. The participle is an adjective and must match the subject — here feminine plural lesnar.

Using vera for a future or one-off event. vera + participle states a current result; an action that takes place wants verða.

English "by" does not map to við here. The passive agent is af + dative.

Over-using the periphrastic passive where Icelandic prefers maður or the -st middle. Don't translate every English passive with vera/verða.

Again, the participle must go plural and match gender — masculine plural opnaðir.

Key Takeaways

• The periphrastic passive is auxiliary + past participle, and the participle is an adjective: it agrees with the subject in gender, number, and case (skrifaður / skrifuð / skrifað; plural lesnir / lesnar / lesin).
• vera + participle = a resulting state; verða + participle = a dynamic event (often future or one-off). English "be + participle" blurs the two; Icelandic forces the choice. The "got" test points to verða.
• Plural subjects take plural participle endings — bækurnar voru lesnar, gluggarnir voru opnaðir — a second layer of agreement English does not have.
• The agent is named with af + dative: skrifuð af Halldóri.
• One English passive maps to three Icelandic strategies: the periphrastic vera/verða passive, the -st middle voice, and the generic maður. Triage before you translate — the full passive is often the least natural option.