Breakdown of Der Auftrag ist gestern erteilt worden.
sein
to be
gestern
yesterday
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
der Auftrag
the mission
erteilen
to grant
Questions & Answers about Der Auftrag ist gestern erteilt worden.
What is the fixed noun-verb combination being used in this sentence?
The base phrase here is einen Auftrag erteilen (to place or give an order). In formal or professional German, it is very common to use these fixed noun-verb combinations (Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen) instead of a single verb to express an action officially.
How does the noun-verb combination adapt to the passive voice here?
In an active sentence, the order is the direct object receiving the action, for example: Wir erteilen den Auftrag (accusative). Because this sentence is in the passive voice, the order is promoted to the subject of the sentence, which is why we see the nominative der Auftrag at the beginning.
Why does the sentence end with worden instead of geworden?
This sentence uses the present perfect passive tense (Perfekt Passiv). As a strict rule, when werden is used as the helper verb to build the passive perfect tense, it drops the ge- prefix from its past participle. Therefore, it becomes ist erteilt worden, rather than ist erteilt geworden.
Why do we use ist as the helper verb instead of hat?
In German, the perfect tense of a passive sentence is always formed with the helper verb sein (to be), never with haben. Since the subject der Auftrag is a singular third-person noun, the helper verb conjugates to ist.
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