Breakdown of Wordt dit boek door de uitgever uitgegeven?
het boek
the book
dit
this (neuter)
worden
to become
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
Questions & Answers about Wordt dit boek door de uitgever uitgegeven?
Why do we use door here instead of another word for "by"?
In Dutch passive sentences, when you want to say who or what is actually performing the action, you always use door. Here, door de uitgever means "by the publisher". It introduces the doer of the action when the subject (dit boek) is just receiving it.
How is the passive voice built in this question?
It uses the helping verb worden (to become/be) and a past participle. Because it is a yes/no question, the conjugated verb wordt goes at the very beginning. The past participle uitgegeven (published) is pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
The words uitgever and uitgegeven look very similar. Are they related?
Yes! They both come from the separable verb uitgeven, which literally means "to give out" but is commonly used to mean "to publish". De uitgever is the noun for "the publisher", and uitgegeven is the past participle meaning "published".
Why is it dit boek instead of deze boek?
Boek is a "het" word (het boek). When you want to say "this" with a singular het-word, you must use dit. You only use deze with "de" words or with plurals.