Word
Die Akte ist von der Polizei gelesen worden.
Meaning
The file has been read by the police.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die Akte ist von der Polizei gelesen worden.
sein
to be
lesen
to read
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
die Polizei
the police
Questions & Answers about Die Akte ist von der Polizei gelesen worden.
Why are we using ist and worden here to mean "has been"?
To form the Perfekt (present perfect) tense in the passive voice, German uses a form of sein (here, ist) plus the past participle of the main verb (gelesen) and the special passive helping word worden. You can think of ist ... worden as the German equivalent of "has been".
Why do we use worden at the end instead of geworden?
When werden is used as a standalone verb meaning "to become", its past participle is geworden. However, when it is used as a helping verb to build the passive voice, it drops the ge- prefix and simply becomes worden.
Why does the sentence use von to say "by the police" instead of durch?
In the passive voice, the active agent (the person or organization intentionally doing the action) is introduced with von. The word durch is used instead for an unconscious cause, a tool, or a means (like "by a storm" or "through an app"). Since the police actively read the file, von is the correct choice.
Polizei is a feminine noun, so why does the sentence say der Polizei?
The preposition von always forces the noun that follows it into the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.