Er wurde reich.

Wurde is the simple past form of werden, which usually means to become.

So:

• Er wird reich. = He is becoming rich / He becomes rich.
• Er wurde reich. = He became rich.

In this sentence, wurde does not mean was. It means became.

Because reich is a predicate adjective here. After verbs like:

• sein = to be
• werden = to become
• bleiben = to stay/remain

the adjective usually stays in its basic form.

So you say:

• Er ist reich.
• Er wurde reich.
• Er bleibt reich.

But if the adjective comes before a noun, then it does take an ending:

• ein reicher Mann = a rich man

So:

• Er wurde reich. ✅
• Er wurde reicher Mann. ❌

No. This is a very common point of confusion.

Wurde can be used in the passive, but not every sentence with wurde is passive.

Here is the difference:

• Er wurde reich. = He became rich.
  
  • wurde = became
  • reich = adjective

Compare that with a real passive sentence:

• Er wurde verletzt. = He was injured.
  
  • wurde
    • past participle (verletzt) = passive

A useful shortcut:

• werden + adjective often means become
• werden + past participle often makes the passive

Both are correct, but they use different past tenses.

• Er wurde reich. = simple past (Präteritum)
• Er ist reich geworden. = present perfect (Perfekt)

In everyday spoken German, especially in many regions, people often prefer Perfekt:

• Er ist reich geworden.

In writing, storytelling, biographies, and more formal narration, Präteritum like wurde is very common:

• Er wurde reich.

So the difference is mostly about style and context, not meaning.

Usually, when describing a person like this, reich means wealthy.

So Er wurde reich normally means he got a lot of money or became wealthy.

But reich can also appear in other expressions with a broader meaning, like full of or rich in:

• an Vitaminen reich = rich in vitamins

Still, in Er wurde reich, the normal interpretation is definitely became wealthy.

Because er is the subject of the sentence, and subjects are in the nominative case.

• er = he
• ihn = him
• ihm = to him / for him

In Er wurde reich, the person who became rich is the subject, so German uses er.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• Er wurde reich. = He became rich.
• Er ist reich geworden. = He has become rich / He became rich.
• Er war reich geworden. = He had become rich.

So war reich geworden is a past perfect idea: it places the becoming earlier than another past event.

Example:

• Bevor er berühmt wurde, war er schon reich geworden.
  = Before he became famous, he had already become rich.

So for a simple statement, Er wurde reich is the normal choice.

Yes, but it means something different.

• Er ist reich. = He is rich.
  This describes his state.
• Er wurde reich. = He became rich.
  This describes a change.

So if you want to express that he started out not rich and later became rich, you need wurde or ist reich geworden, not just ist.

The infinitive is werden.

Some useful forms are:

• werden = to become
• er wird = he becomes / he is becoming
• er wurde = he became
• er ist geworden = he has become

This is a very important verb in German because it is used both for:

• becoming something
• forming the future
• forming many passive constructions

No, this is the normal basic word order for a main clause:

• Er = subject
• wurde = finite verb in second position
• reich = predicate adjective

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + complement

You could change the order for emphasis, but the verb still stays in second position in a main clause:

• Reich wurde er. = Rich he became. / It was rich that he became.
  This is more marked and less neutral.

The normal sentence is simply:

• Er wurde reich.