The Impersonal Passive Voice
To describe a general action without specifying who is doing it (like "People are working" in English), Dutch uses the impersonal passive voice.
To form it, use the dummy subject er, the verb wordt, and place the past participle of the main verb at the end of the sentence.
| People are working in the studio. | Er wordt in de studio gewerkt. |
| People are laughing into the microphone. | Er wordt in de microfoon gelachen. |
Emphasizing Time or Place
If you start the sentence with a time or place phrase, the standard verb-second rule applies. The verb (wordt) takes the second position, and er moves right after it.
| In the evening, people broadcast live. | 's Avonds wordt er live uitgezonden. |
| Before the broadcast begins, people talk. | Voordat de uitzending begint, wordt er gepraat. |
Notice how an entire dependent clause (like Voordat de uitzending begint) counts as the first position, keeping wordt in position two.
Adding Details
Negative words like niet and prepositional phrases (like naar de radio) go in the middle of the sentence, before the past participle at the end.
| People do not eat here in the studio. | Er wordt hier in de studio niet gegeten. |
| During the broadcast, people do not sleep. | Tijdens de uitzending wordt er niet geslapen. |
| During work, people often listen to the radio. | Tijdens het werk wordt er vaak naar de radio geluisterd. |
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