German Passive Voice: Decode wird and Write With man

German official letters and recorded announcements often focus on what happens, not on who does it.

You can see that in this line:

Ihr Anruf wird weitergeleitet.

The sentence does not name the person or system forwarding the call. It gives you the action. To understand it, read it as: someone forwards your call.

For this step, you need one recognition pattern:

wird / werden + Partizip II

Then you need one active alternative for your own German:

man + active verb

Find the two passive parts

Start with a familiar participle. In the German Perfekt, a participle closes the verb bracket. The passive voice uses that same kind of form with wird or werden.

Passive sentence	Form of werden	Participle
Ihr Anruf wird weitergeleitet.	wird	weitergeleitet
Der Antrag wird bearbeitet.	wird	bearbeitet
Die Unterlagen werden geprüft.	werden	geprüft

The singular sentences use wird. The plural sentence uses werden. In all three, the final participle carries the action.

If participles are still new, the German Perfekt guide shows how they work inside the verb bracket.

Decode the missing person

When a passive sentence does not name the actor, add “someone” in your mental translation.

German sentence	Plain decoding
Ihr Anruf wird weitergeleitet.	Someone forwards your call.
Der Antrag wird bearbeitet.	Someone processes the application.
Die Unterlagen werden geprüft.	Someone checks the documents.

This is a reading move. You do not have to identify the exact employee, department, or system. Find the action and keep going.

Use man when you write

You can often express the same idea with man. The sentence stays active, but the person remains general.

Passive sentence to read	Active sentence to write
Der Antrag wird bearbeitet.	Man bearbeitet den Antrag.
Die Unterlagen werden geprüft.	Man prüft die Unterlagen.
Ihr Anruf wird weitergeleitet.	Man leitet Ihren Anruf weiter.

Use three steps:

1. Find wird or werden.
2. Recover the action from the participle.
3. Put man in position 1 and the active verb in position 2.

The first pair makes the move clear:

Der Antrag wird bearbeitet. → Man bearbeitet den Antrag.

The meaning stays almost the same. The second sentence uses the position-2 rule and active grammar you can reuse elsewhere.

Recognise wurde in the past

The same passive pattern can point to the past. Compare these two lines:

Heute wird der Antrag bearbeitet.

Gestern wurde der Antrag bearbeitet.

The time words help: heute goes with wird, while gestern goes with wurde.

Treat wurde + Partizip II as a reading pattern. You need to recognise that the action happened in the past. You do not need to build your own passive sentence with it.

A four-item check

Complete the check before looking at the answers.

1. What does Der Antrag wird bearbeitet. mean: someone is processing the application, or you have to process it?
2. Which sentence places the action in the past: Heute wird der Antrag bearbeitet. or Gestern wurde der Antrag bearbeitet.?
3. Rewrite Der Antrag wird bearbeitet. with man.
4. Rewrite Die Unterlagen werden geprüft. with man.

Answers:

1. Someone is processing the application.
2. Gestern wurde der Antrag bearbeitet.
3. Man bearbeitet den Antrag.
4. Man prüft die Unterlagen.

Check two things: you found the action in the passive sentence, and your man-sentence keeps the finite verb in position 2.

What to learn next

Use this decoder the next time an official letter hides the actor. Mark wird or werden, find the participle, and say the meaning once with “someone.” Then turn the line into a man-sentence.

For the active word-order rule behind that rewrite, use the position-1 German word-order guide. For the participle forms at the end of each passive example, review the German Perfekt guide.