Breakdown of Der Snack ist von den Teilnehmern getestet worden.
sein
to be
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
testen
to test (try out)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
der Teilnehmer
the participant
der Snack
the snack
Questions & Answers about Der Snack ist von den Teilnehmern getestet worden.
Why does this sentence use ist instead of hat?
This sentence is in the passive voice, specifically the present perfect passive (has been tested). In German, the passive voice always uses the helping verb sein (to be) for its perfect tenses, never haben. Therefore, it is Der Snack ist ... getestet worden.
Why is the word worden used at the end instead of geworden?
Both worden and geworden are past participles of werden (to become). However, when werden is used as a helping verb to build the passive voice, it drops the ge- prefix. You use geworden when it is the main verb (e.g., Er ist alt geworden - He has become old), but worden for the passive voice (e.g., Es ist getestet worden - It has been tested).
Why do we use von den instead of durch die for "by the"?
In a passive sentence, the person or living thing actively doing the action is introduced with the preposition von plus the dative case. The preposition durch (followed by the accusative) is usually reserved for the means, tool, or cause of an action (e.g., durch einen Fehler - by/through a mistake), rather than the people intentionally doing it.
Why does Teilnehmern have an extra -n at the end?
Because it is in the dative plural. The preposition von always requires the dative case. The plural of der Teilnehmer (the participant) is just die Teilnehmer. However, in the dative plural, German nouns almost always add an extra -n to the end if they do not already end in -n or -s. So, it becomes von den Teilnehmern.
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