Word
De roman wordt door de schrijver gelezen.
Meaning
The novel is read by the writer.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of De roman wordt door de schrijver gelezen.
lezen
to read
worden
to become
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
de roman
the novel
Questions & Answers about De roman wordt door de schrijver gelezen.
Why does this sentence use door instead of bij for the word "by"?
In Dutch passive sentences, the person or thing doing the action is always introduced with door. While English uses "by" for this, the Dutch word bij usually means "at" or "with" (like being at someone's house). So, to say an action is done "by" the writer, you must use door de schrijver.
Why is gelezen placed at the very end of the sentence?
In Dutch main clauses, when you have a conjugated helping verb (wordt) and a past participle (gelezen), they split up. The helping verb takes the second position, and the past participle is pushed all the way to the end. The extra information, door de schrijver, gets sandwiched between them.
How do we know this means "is read" instead of "was read"?
You can tell by looking at the helping verb wordt. Because wordt is in the present tense, the passive action is happening right now. If the book was read in the past, the sentence would use the past tense form werd: De roman werd door de schrijver gelezen.
Does roman just mean "novel"? It looks like the English word "Roman".
Yes, a roman in Dutch simply means a novel (a fictional book). It is a classic "false friend" for English speakers! If you want to talk about a Roman from ancient history, you would use the Dutch word Romein.