German
German has an impersonal passive voice, as shown in the examples below:
Active Voice:
- Die Kinder schlafen.
- "The children sleep."
Impersonal Passive Voice:
- Es wird geschlafen.
- It is slept.
- "Someone is sleeping."
In the latter example, the subject (Die Kinder, "the children") has been deleted, and in its place is the dummy es "it".
The subject can be reintroduced using the preposition von, "by":
- Es wird von den Kindern geschlafen.
- It is by the children slept.
- "It is slept by the children."
The sentence can also be constructed without an overt subject by placing an adverbial in the first position:
- Heute wird geschlafen. Dort wird geschlafen.
- Today is slept. There is slept.
- "Someone is sleeping today. Someone is sleeping there."
Read more about this topic: Impersonal Passive Voice
Famous quotes containing the word german:
“The German language “speaks Being,” while all the others merely “speak of Being.””
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
“If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“That nameless and infinitely delicate aroma of inexpressible tenderness and attentiveness which, in every refined and honorable attachment, is contemporary with the courtship, and precedes the final banns and the rite; but which, like the bouquet of the costliest German wines, too often evaporates upon pouring love out to drink, in the disenchanting glasses of the matrimonial days and nights.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)