Breakdown of Das geheime Symbol wäre sofort entschlüsselt worden.
sein
to be
sofort
immediately
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
geheim
secret (classified)
das Symbol
the symbol
entschlüsseln
to decipher
Questions & Answers about Das geheime Symbol wäre sofort entschlüsselt worden.
Why do we use wäre here instead of hätte for "would have"?
In German, the passive voice is built with the helping verb werden. In the perfect tenses (like the past unreal here), werden itself requires the helping verb sein. Therefore, to say "would have been," you must use the Konjunktiv II form of sein, which is wäre, rather than hätte.
Why is the word worden used 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 purely as a helping verb to form the passive voice, it drops the ge- and becomes simply worden. Since this sentence is passive, worden is the correct form.
Why doesn't the past participle entschlüsselt start with ge-?
The verb entschlüsseln (to decipher) starts with the inseparable prefix ent-. Verbs with inseparable prefixes (like be-, ent-, er-, and ver-) never take the ge- prefix when forming their past participles.
If I put this sentence into a subordinate clause (like after weil), where would wäre go?
In a subordinate clause, the conjugated verb gets pushed to the very end of the sentence. Here, the conjugated verb is wäre. So if you added weil (because), the verb cluster at the end would look like this: ... weil das geheime Symbol sofort entschlüsselt worden wäre.
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