Breakdown of Das Wiener Schnitzel ist vom Koch gebraten worden.
sein
to be
vom
from the (von + dem) / of the (belonging to) / by the (agent in a passive clause)
braten
to fry
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
der Koch
the cook
Wiener
of Vienna
das Schnitzel
the schnitzel
Questions & Answers about Das Wiener Schnitzel ist vom Koch gebraten worden.
Why is Wiener capitalized, and why doesn't it have a neuter adjective ending like Wieneres to match das Schnitzel?
Because Wiener is an indeclinable geographic adjective. Adjectives created by adding -er to a city or region name are always capitalized and never change their endings to match gender or case. It stays exactly as Wiener regardless of what noun follows it.
Why is the verb ist used here instead of hat, given that frying is an action?
The sentence is in the present perfect passive voice. To form this, you need the helper verb sein (here as ist) because the passive is built with werden, and the verb werden always takes sein in the perfect tenses.
Why is the last word worden instead of the normal past participle geworden?
When werden acts as a helping verb to build the passive voice, its past participle drops the ge- prefix and simply becomes worden. You only use geworden when werden is the main verb of the sentence, meaning to become.
Could I say durch den Koch instead of vom Koch to express by the chef?
It is much better to use vom Koch. In German passive sentences, the active person directly doing the action is introduced with von plus the dative case (contracted here to vom). The preposition durch is typically reserved for a tool, a method, or an intermediary cause.
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