Word
Het materiaal wordt in de fabriek geproduceerd.
Meaning
The material is produced in the factory.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het materiaal wordt in de fabriek geproduceerd.
in
in
worden
to become
de fabriek
the factory
het materiaal
the material
Questions & Answers about Het materiaal wordt in de fabriek geproduceerd.
English uses "is produced", so why does the Dutch sentence use wordt instead of is?
In Dutch, the present passive voice is formed using the auxiliary verb worden (to become), not zijn (to be). While English says "is produced", Dutch essentially says "becomes produced" (wordt geproduceerd) to emphasize that the action of producing is happening right now.
Why is geproduceerd at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch main clauses, the conjugated verb (wordt) takes the second position, but any other verbs—like the past participle geproduceerd—get pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
Why does the past participle geproduceerd end with a -d instead of a -t?
This follows the 't kofschip rule. The infinitive of the verb is produceren. If you remove the -en, the stem ends in r (produceer). Because r is not one of the consonants in 't kofschip, the past participle gets a -d at the end.
Could I use worden instead of wordt here?