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)
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?