Breakdown of Was für ein Hinweis wäre von dir entdeckt worden?
sein
to be
du
you (informal singular)
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
was für ein
what kind of
entdecken
to discover
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
der Hinweis
the clue (hint, information)
Questions & Answers about Was für ein Hinweis wäre von dir entdeckt worden?
How is the past passive Konjunktiv II (Irrealis) formed in this sentence?
To say "would have been [verb]ed", German uses a specific three-part structure. We start with the helper verb wäre (or wären for plural subjects). Then we add the past participle of the main verb (entdeckt), and we always end with worden. So, the complete verb bracket here is wäre ... entdeckt worden (would have been ... discovered).
Why is the word at the very end worden and not geworden?
When werden is used as a helping verb to build the passive voice, its past participle drops the ge- and becomes just worden. You only use geworden when werden is the main verb of the sentence meaning "to become" (for example: Er ist Arzt geworden - He became a doctor).
Why is it Was für ein Hinweis (nominative) and not einen Hinweis (accusative)?
In an active sentence, "the clue" would be the direct object receiving the action, which requires the accusative (e.g., Was für einen Hinweis hättest du entdeckt? - What kind of clue would you have discovered?). However, when you change a sentence to the passive voice, the old object becomes the new grammatical subject. Therefore, ein Hinweis must take the nominative case.
Why doesn't the past participle entdeckt start with ge- like most past participles do?
The verb entdecken (to discover) starts with the prefix ent-, which is an inseparable prefix. Verbs with inseparable prefixes (like ent-, be-, ver-, er-) never take a ge- when forming their past participles.
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