Learn Hardcore German: Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen, obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge versteckt. - Her blog is read by many people, although the platform’s algorithm sometimes hides her posts.

Active:
Viele Leute lesen ihren Blog. – Many people read her blog.
Passive:
Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen. – Her blog is read by many people.

German forms the present passive with:

werden + past participle (Partizip II)
- wird gelesen = is read
  - wird – 3rd person singular of werden
  - gelesen – past participle of lesen

So wird gelesen literally means “becomes read”, which corresponds to English “is read”.

What exactly does gelesen mean, and why is it not just lesen?

Gelesen is the past participle of the verb lesen (to read).

Infinitive: lesen – to read
Past participle: gelesen – used in:
- Perfect tense: Ich habe das Buch gelesen. – I have read the book.
- Passive: Das Buch wird gelesen. – The book is read.

In passive constructions, German always uses Partizip II (past participle), not the infinitive:

Not: Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten lesen.
Correct: Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen.

Why is it Ihr Blog at the start and ihre Beiträge later? What’s the difference between Ihr and ihre here?

Both Ihr and ihre refer to the same possessor (most likely her or formal your). The form changes because the possessed noun changes.

Ihr Blog
- Blog is masculine singular (der Blog), nominative.
- Masculine nominative singular takes ihr.
- So: ihr + der Blog → ihr Blog → capitalized as first word: Ihr Blog
ihre Beiträge
- Beiträge is plural (die Beiträge), accusative.
- Plural takes ihre.
- So: ihre Beiträge = her posts / their posts / your posts (formal)

So:

ihr = base form used with masculine/neuter singular (in nominative)
ihre = form used with feminine singular and all plurals (in nominative/accusative)

In this sentence:

Ihr Blog – her/your blog (subject)
ihre Beiträge – her/your posts (direct object)

Same possessor, different forms because Blog and Beiträge have different gender/number/case.

Does Ihr here mean her or your? And why is it capitalized?

Ihr can mean several things in German, and the capitalization is tricky here.

Meaning possibilities
- her blog – if ihr refers to a third-person singular sie (she)
- your blog (formal) – if Ihr refers to Sie (formal you)
Capitalization
- The first word of a sentence is always capitalized in German.
- Possessive pronouns for formal Sie are also capitalized: Ihr, Ihre, Ihren, etc.

Because Ihr is at the beginning of the sentence, we cannot tell from spelling alone whether it’s:

ihr Blog (her blog) that happens to be capitalized, or
Ihr Blog (your blog, formal)

Only the context would make clear which is intended.

Why is it wird and not ist in Ihr Blog wird ... gelesen?

German distinguishes between:

Event/Action passive (Vorgangspassiv) – with werden
- Focus on the action itself.
- Der Text wird gelesen. – The text is being read / is read (by someone).
State/result passive (Zustandspassiv) – with sein
- Focus on the resulting state after the action.
- Der Text ist gelesen. – The text is (in the state of) having been read.

In Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen, the idea is:

People regularly read the blog (ongoing action, not just the state of “already read”).
So the werden + Partizip II passive (wird gelesen) is correct here.

Why do we say von vielen Leuten and not von viele Leute?

Two things are happening here:

Preposition + case
- von always takes the dative case.
- Leute in the dative plural: den Leuten (article) / Leuten (without article).
Adjective ending
- With viele in dative plural without an article, the adjective ending is -n:
  - viele Leute (nominative/accusative)
  - vielen Leuten (dative)

So:

von vielen Leuten is:
- von
  - dative plural
- vielen (dative plural form of viele)
- Leuten (dative plural of Leute)

von viele Leute is ungrammatical because von requires the dative.

Can I change the word order and say Ihr Blog wird gelesen von vielen Leuten? Is that still correct?

Yes, Ihr Blog wird gelesen von vielen Leuten is grammatically correct.

Possible variants:

Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen. – neutral, very common.
Ihr Blog wird gelesen von vielen Leuten. – slightly more emphasis on gelesen.
Von vielen Leuten wird ihr Blog gelesen. – stronger emphasis on von vielen Leuten.

German word order is fairly flexible, especially within the “middle field” of the sentence. You must keep:

wird as the conjugated verb in position 2 in the main clause
gelesen at the end of the clause (typical for the participle in passive)

Where von vielen Leuten goes is more flexible and affects emphasis rather than correctness.

What does obwohl do to the word order in the second part of the sentence?

Obwohl is a subordinating conjunction. In German, these conjunctions send the finite verb to the end of the clause.

Main clause (verb in 2nd position):
Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen.
Subordinate clause with obwohl (verb final):
..., obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge versteckt.

Structure of the subordinate clause:

obwohl – subordinating conjunction
der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge – middle field
versteckt – conjugated verb at the end

So because of obwohl, versteckt must come at the end of that clause.

Why is there a comma before obwohl?

In German, subordinate clauses are separated by a comma from the main clause.

Here:

Main clause:
Ihr Blog wird von vielen Leuten gelesen,
Subordinate clause introduced by obwohl:
obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge versteckt.

Because obwohl clearly starts a new clause with its own subject and verb (der Algorithmus ... versteckt), German spelling rules require a comma before it.

Why is manchmal placed before ihre Beiträge and not somewhere else?

Manchmal is an adverb of frequency (sometimes). In German, such adverbs usually go into the “middle field” of the clause, between the subject and the verb’s right part, often before the object.

Standard, natural position:

... obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge versteckt.

Other possible positions (all grammatical, with slight differences in emphasis):

... obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform ihre Beiträge manchmal versteckt.
– Slightly more focus on ihre Beiträge.
... obwohl der Algorithmus manchmal die Beiträge der Plattform versteckt.
– Different emphasis and slightly different structure.

What you cannot do in standard German is put versteckt anywhere except at the end of the subordinate clause, because obwohl requires verb-final order.

What structure is der Algorithmus der Plattform? Why not der Algorithmus von der Plattform?

Der Algorithmus der Plattform is a genitive construction:

der Algorithmus – nominative singular (subject)
der Plattform – genitive singular; shows possession/association

Literally: the algorithm of the platform.

You could also say:

der Algorithmus von der Plattform or der Algorithmus von dieser Plattform

Differences:

Genitive (der Algorithmus der Plattform)
- More formal, more concise, typical in written language.
von + dative (der Algorithmus von der Plattform)
- More colloquial, very common in spoken German.

Both are correct, but the genitive form sounds a bit more formal or “written.”

Which cases are used in obwohl der Algorithmus der Plattform manchmal ihre Beiträge versteckt?

Breakdown by function and case:

der Algorithmus – nominative singular (subject)
- Masculine noun: der Algorithmus
der Plattform – genitive singular (possessor / “of the platform”)
- Feminine noun: die Plattform → der Plattform in genitive
ihre Beiträge – accusative plural (direct object)
- Plural of der Beitrag: die Beiträge

So the pattern is:

Subject (Nom.): der Algorithmus
Genitive attribute: der Plattform
Direct object (Acc.): ihre Beiträge

What form is versteckt here? Is it past participle or present tense?

In this sentence, versteckt is the conjugated verb in the present tense, 3rd person singular:

ich verstecke
du versteckst
er/sie/es versteckt ← used here
wir verstecken
ihr versteckt
sie verstecken

Regular verbs in German often have a past participle that looks the same as the er/sie/es form:

Verb: verstecken
- er versteckt – he hides (present, finite verb)
- hat versteckt – has hidden (past participle with auxiliary)

In obwohl der Algorithmus ... ihre Beiträge versteckt, there is no auxiliary (hat, ist, wird, etc.) in that clause, so versteckt must be the finite present-tense verb:

although the algorithm sometimes hides her posts.