Breakdown of Der Roman wird von meinem Kollegen übersetzt.
mein
my
der Kollege
the colleague
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Roman
the novel
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
übersetzen
to translate
Questions & Answers about Der Roman wird von meinem Kollegen übersetzt.
Why do we use von here instead of durch to mean "by"?
We use von (+ dative) when expressing the active agent in a passive sentence - the person, animal, or institution intentionally doing the action. Since the colleague is the one translating, we use von. durch (+ accusative) is used for the means or instrument, like if the novel were translated "by" or "through" a computer program.
Is Kollegen plural here? Why does it end in -n?
It is singular! Kollege belongs to a group of masculine nouns known as "weak nouns" or "n-declension nouns". These nouns add an -n or -en ending in all cases except the nominative (the subject). Because von triggers the dative case, mein Kollege becomes meinem Kollegen.
Why doesn't the past participle übersetzt have a ge- in it?
When übersetzen means "to translate", the prefix über- is inseparable. Verbs with inseparable prefixes do not add ge- to form their past participles. They just use the prefix, the verb stem, and a -t or -en ending.
The English translation says "is being translated", so why use wird instead of ist?
German builds the standard passive voice (which focuses on an ongoing action or process) using the helping verb werden rather than sein. If you said Der Roman ist übersetzt, that would mean the translating process is already finished and you are just describing the completed state of the book.
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