Die Blumen müssen gegossen werden.

The flowers must be watered.

Breakdown of Die Blumen müssen gegossen werden.

• müssen: must
• die Blume: the flower
• gegossen werden: to be watered

Questions & Answers about Die Blumen müssen gegossen werden.

What voice and tense is Die Blumen müssen gegossen werden in, and how would I describe it?

This sentence is in the present‐time passive voice with a modal verb. In English you’d say “The flowers have to be watered” or “The flowers must be watered.”

Why is die Blumen in the nominative case, even though “the flowers” seems like an object in English?

In German passive constructions, the original direct object (here die Blumen) becomes the grammatical subject of the sentence and thus takes the nominative case.

What role does the verb müssen play here, and how does it affect the structure?

Müssen is a modal verb expressing necessity (“must” or “have to”). When you use a modal in a passive, you combine the past participle of the main verb (here gegossen) plus the infinitive of werden at the end.

Why are there two verbs at the end—gegossen werden?

In a passive with a modal, German stacks three elements at the end: the main verb’s past participle (gegossen), the infinitive of werden (used to form passive), and then the modal in second position (müssen). Word‐order rules push gegossen and werden to the very end in that order.

Why not use wurden instead of werden?

Wurden is the simple‐past form of werden used in the Präteritum passive (“die Blumen wurden gegossen” = “the flowers were watered”). But with a modal in the present passive, you need the infinitive werden, not the past form.

Could you form an active version of this sentence?

Yes. In the active voice you might say Man muss die Blumen gießen (“One must water the flowers”). Notice gießen is in the infinitive with no passive werden, and die Blumen is now the direct object, not the subject.

Is gegossen a regular or irregular past participle?

Gegossen is the strong (irregular) past participle of gießen. Regular verbs would have a –t ending (e.g. geguckt, gemacht), but gießen changes its stem vowel (ie → o) and adds ge- at the front, giving gegossen.

Can I use a different verb instead of gießen in this passive?

Yes, for example wässern can also mean “to water.” Then you’d say Die Blumen müssen gewässert werden. However, gießen is more common in everyday speech.