Breakdown of Die Maschine wurde von einem Ingenieur entwickelt.
ein
a, an (eine)
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
der Ingenieur
the engineer
die Maschine
the machine (mechanical)
entwickeln
to develop
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
Questions & Answers about Die Maschine wurde von einem Ingenieur entwickelt.
How is the past passive constructed in this sentence?
It uses wurde, which is the simple past (Präteritum) form of werden, placed in the second position. The past participle of the main verb, entwickelt, goes at the very end of the sentence.
Why do we use von here to translate 'by'?
In German passive sentences, the person or active doer of the action is introduced with von. If the action were caused by a tool, a process, or a force of nature rather than a person, you would usually use durch instead.
Why is it einem Ingenieur instead of ein Ingenieur?
The preposition von always requires the dative case. Because Ingenieur is a masculine noun (der Ingenieur), the indefinite article changes to the dative form einem.
Why doesn't the past participle entwickelt start with ge-?
Verbs that begin with inseparable prefixes like ent-, be-, or ver- do not take the ge- prefix in the past participle. So entwickeln simply becomes entwickelt.
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