German offers several passive constructions, each suited to a different communicative purpose. The Vorgangspassiv, formed with werden plus the Partizip II, describes a process or event in progress: Die Tür wird geöffnet means the door is being opened. The Zustandspassiv, formed with sein plus the Partizip II, describes the resulting state after the action is complete: Die Tür ist geöffnet means the door is open. The distinction matters because the same Partizip II can describe either an ongoing action or a stable condition, depending on which auxiliary is chosen.
When the agent is unknown, irrelevant, or deliberately left vague, German frequently uses the impersonal passive, in which the pronoun es serves as a placeholder subject. The pattern es wird behauptet, dass... introduces reported claims without naming the claimer: Es wird behauptet, dass die Reform gescheitert ist. This construction is typical of academic and journalistic German, where the focus is on the content of the claim rather than on who made it. A related form, the bekommen-Passiv (also called Rezipientenpassiv or Dativpassiv), shifts the focus to the recipient of an action. The dative object of an active sentence becomes the subject, and the verb is bekommt, kriegt, or erhält plus the Partizip II: Er bekommt das Buch geschenkt corresponds to the active Man schenkt ihm das Buch.
The construction sein plus zu plus the infinitive offers a passive alternative that expresses either possibility or necessity, depending on context. Das Problem ist leicht zu lösen means the problem can be easily solved and parallels kann gelöst werden. By contrast, Die Vorschriften sind zu beachten means the regulations must be observed and parallels müssen beachtet werden. This form is common in instructions, regulations, and academic writing where the agent is generalized away and only the action and its modality remain salient.
Beyond the passives, German has a family of impersonal expressions built around the pronoun es that signal how the speaker relates to the information being presented. Es handelt sich um plus the accusative identifies what something is: Bei diesem Dokument handelt es sich um einen Vertrag. Es kommt darauf an introduces a dependency: Es kommt darauf an, wie viel Zeit wir haben. Es liegt daran, dass explains a cause: Es liegt daran, dass er nicht genug geübt hat. Es stellt sich heraus, dass introduces a discovery or revelation: Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Daten fehlerhaft waren. Es gilt zu plus the infinitive signals urgent importance: Es gilt, schnell zu handeln. And es bedarf plus the genitive is a highly formal equivalent of man braucht: Es bedarf einer gründlichen Analyse. These impersonal patterns are essential tools for academic and formal registers, allowing the speaker to remain detached while organizing complex information.