Breakdown of De structuur van het rapport wordt door de vertegenwoordiger goedgekeurd.
van
of
door
by
worden
to become
de structuur
the structure
het rapport
the report
de vertegenwoordiger
the representative
goedkeuren
to approve
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Dutch grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about De structuur van het rapport wordt door de vertegenwoordiger goedgekeurd.
Why is wordt used in this sentence?
wordt is the third person singular present tense form of worden, which is used to create the dynamic passive in Dutch. In English we would say “is being approved,” whereas Dutch uses “worden” for that ongoing approval action.
Why is the past participle goedgekeurd at the end of the sentence?
In a Dutch main clause you follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (wordt) stays in second position, and any non-finite verb forms (like the past participle goedgekeurd) move to the very end.
Why is door used before de vertegenwoordiger?
When you want to express the agent (the “by X”) in a passive sentence, Dutch uses the preposition door. So door de vertegenwoordiger literally means “by the representative.” If the doer isn’t important you can simply leave out the door phrase.
In the noun phrase de structuur van het rapport, why do we use van?
Dutch generally marks possession or “of”-relationships with van. You place the head noun first (structuur) and then van + the noun it belongs to (het rapport). Unlike English, you don’t stick an ’s on most nouns in Dutch.
Why is it het rapport and not de rapport?
Dutch has two gender classes: de-words (common gender) and het-words (neuter). rapport is a neuter noun, so it takes het. You usually have to learn noun genders by memorizing them or checking a dictionary.
Can the agent phrase door de vertegenwoordiger be omitted or repositioned?
Yes. The agent is optional. You can say:
• De structuur van het rapport wordt goedgekeurd.
And you can also front the agent phrase, keeping V2:
• Door de vertegenwoordiger wordt de structuur van het rapport goedgekeurd.
How would you express this sentence in the past tense or with a perfect passive?
• Simple past passive (action in the past):
De structuur van het rapport werd door de vertegenwoordiger goedgekeurd.
• Perfect passive (focus on the completed result):
De structuur van het rapport is door de vertegenwoordiger goedgekeurd.
Using werd vs. is shifts the nuance between “the action happened” and “the result holds true now.”