Use the passive (a sentence in which the subject undergoes the action) when the doer is unknown, obvious or not worth mentioning: _Het pakket is bezorgd_ (the parcel has been delivered) tells you all you need. When the doer is you, your team or your reader, an active sentence (one where the subject does the action) with _we_, _je_ or _u_ is usually clearer and friendlier. Official Dutch letters often overuse the passive, so do not take them as your model for everyday emails.
The pattern
Use the passive when the doer is unknown, obvious or unimportant. When the doer is you, your organisation or your reader, say so in an active sentence.
- Form: _worden_ plus the past participle (the form like _gemaakt_ or _bezorgd_), or _zijn_ plus the participle in the perfect tenses. See [The passive with worden](#/lesson/passive).
- Unknown doer: _Mijn fiets is gestolen._
- Obvious doer: _De verdachte is aangehouden._ (by the police, who else?)
- Unimportant doer, because the result is the news: _De vergadering is verplaatst naar donderdag._
- Known doer who matters, especially you or your reader: go active. _We hebben de vergadering naar donderdag verplaatst._
Examples
| Mijn fiets is gisteren bij het station gestolen. | My bike was stolen at the station yesterday. |
|---|---|
| Je pakket is bezorgd bij je buren op nummer 14. | Your parcel was delivered to your neighbours at number 14. |
| Een 28-jarige man uit Zwolle is gisteravond aangehouden. | A 28-year-old man from Zwolle was arrested last night. |
| Het nieuwe station is ontworpen door een Deens architectenbureau. | The new station was designed by a Danish architecture firm. |
| Uw aanvraag wordt binnen acht weken behandeld. | Your application will be processed within eight weeks. |
| We behandelen uw aanvraag binnen acht weken. | We will process your application within eight weeks. |
| Het formulier kan online worden ingevuld. | The form can be filled in online. |
| Je kunt het formulier online invullen. | You can fill in the form online. |
| Er is helaas een fout gemaakt in uw factuur. | Unfortunately, a mistake was made on your invoice. |
| We hebben helaas een fout gemaakt in uw factuur. | Unfortunately, we made a mistake on your invoice. |
Why it works this way
Think of the subject as a spotlight: it shows what the sentence is about. An active sentence lights up the doer: _De buurman heeft mijn fiets gerepareerd._ The passive moves the light to the thing that undergoes the action and lets the doer fade into the dark: _Mijn fiets is gerepareerd._ That is exactly right when the doer adds nothing.
With _door_, the doer comes back, at the end of the sentence, where Dutch tends to put new information. That is why the station example works: the station is the topic, the designer is the news. If neither is true, the active version is usually shorter.
That dark corner is also why many official texts love the passive. Combine it with nouns made from verbs (see [Nominalisation](#/lesson/nominalisation)) and nobody seems responsible: _Na ontvangst van uw betaling wordt uw aanvraag in behandeling genomen._ Compare _Zodra we uw betaling hebben ontvangen, behandelen we uw aanvraag._ Same facts, but now a person is talking to you. Many Dutch organisations are rewriting their letters in exactly this way. The passive still has its place in formal writing: in reports, news and legal texts, the process or the result often really is the topic.
In your own emails, use _we_ for your team and _u_ or _je_ for your reader. _Je_ also works for general instructions, as in the form example (see [Men, je and ze](#/lesson/people-in-general)). When something has gone wrong, hiding the doer can sound evasive: _Er is een fout gemaakt_ almost suggests the mistake made itself, while _We hebben een fout gemaakt_ sounds honest.
Remember: ask who does it and whether your reader cares. Nobody knows or nobody cares: passive. You, your team or your reader: active.
Watch out
- Not: _Mijn fiets is gisteren gestolen geworden._ Say: _Mijn fiets is gisteren gestolen._ (the perfect passive is _zijn_ plus the participle, without _geworden_)
- Not: _Ik ben een nieuwe laptop gegeven._ Say: _Ik heb een nieuwe laptop gekregen._ (in standard Dutch, the receiver of _geven_ does not become the subject of a passive; use _krijgen_)
- Not: _Het formulier is van mijn huisarts ingevuld._ Say: _Het formulier is door mijn huisarts ingevuld._ (the doer follows _door_, not _van_; German _von_ misleads)
- Not: _Het wordt op kantoor veel geklaagd over de koffie._ Say: _Er wordt op kantoor veel geklaagd over de koffie._ (a passive without a subject uses _er_, not _het_)
Quick check
- Choose _Het_ or _Er_: _... wordt op het perron veel gerookt, ook al is het verboden._
- Choose _van_ or _door_: _De nieuwe parkeerregels zijn ... de gemeenteraad goedgekeurd._
- Choose _werd_ or _kreeg_: _Lotte ... te horen dat haar afspraak bij de huisarts was verzet._
- Rewrite with _we_ and fill in the verb: _Uw bericht wordt zo snel mogelijk beantwoord._ becomes _We ... uw bericht zo snel mogelijk._
Answers
- _Er_: a passive without a subject starts with _er_ when nothing else comes first; _het_ is not possible.
- _door_: the doer in a passive follows _door_.
- _kreeg_: _te horen krijgen_ is the fixed expression for being told something; _worden_ does not combine with _te horen_.
- _beantwoorden_: _We beantwoorden uw bericht zo snel mogelijk._ The doer is your team, so name it.
Use it today
Take one automatic email or letter you received this week, from your energy supplier, the _gemeente_ or a webshop, and underline every _worden_ or _zijn_ with a participle. Rewrite two of those sentences with _we_ and _u_ or _je_, and decide which version you would rather receive.