Breakdown of Der Kurs kann online gebucht werden.
können
can
online
online
der Kurs
the course
gebucht werden
to be booked
Questions & Answers about Der Kurs kann online gebucht werden.
What is the overall grammatical structure of Der Kurs kann online gebucht werden?
This is a passive voice sentence with a modal verb in the present tense.
- Der Kurs – subject (nominative)
- kann – modal verb (können, 3rd person singular)
- online – adverb
- gebucht – past participle of buchen (“to book”)
- werden – infinitive of werden, used to form the passive
So the structure is: Subject + conjugated modal + (adverb) + past participle + werden.
Meaning: “The course can be booked online.”
Why is werden at the very end of the sentence?
In German main clauses, the conjugated verb goes in second position, and any other verb forms (infinitives or participles) go to the end of the clause.
Here, kann is the conjugated verb (modal, present, 3rd person singular), so it takes position 2.
The passive is built with werden + past participle, but because a modal is present, werden has to appear as an infinitive at the end:
- Without modal, passive: Der Kurs wird online gebucht.
- With modal, passive: Der Kurs kann online gebucht werden.
Why is it Der Kurs and not Den Kurs?