All About German Passive with Modal Verbs and What is Important to Know / Passiv mit Modalverben

In this lesson, you will learn all about the passive of modal verbs in German and learn how to form the passive with a modal verb. In addition to tips on how to build the passive form, you’ll also find tips on how to use it.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

CONTENT

Passive of modal verbs in:
Present tense
Past tense
Perfect tense
Pluperfect tense
Future I tense
Future II tense

In the following chart you will find the overview of all active and passive sentences in all tenses

Passive of modal verbs in the Present tense

Passive voice of present tense is formed by a modal verb in the present tense, participle II of the main verb and auxiliary verb werden. How to form modal verbs you will find in the unit Modal verbs.

Pattern:

The modal verb in the Present tense + participle 2 + werden
Das Paket muss heute bei der Post abgegeben werden.

Place in sentence

In the main sentence:
Der Mann muss sofort operiert werden.  

In a main sentence, modal verbs are placed in the second position and must be in the appropriate person form, while the past participle (participle II) and “werden” are positioned at the end of the sentence.

 In subordinate clause:
Der Arzt sagt, dass der Mann sofort operiert werden muss.

In a subordinate sentence, the modal verb comes at the end of the sentence and we put it again in the appropriate person, and in front of it are the participle II and "werden".
As you can see, the modal verb is moved to the last position in a subordinate clause.

Click on:
Grammar Contents

Passive with modal verbs in the past tense

The passive voice of the past tense is formed by a modal verb in the past tense, participle 2 of the main verb, and the auxiliary verb werden. How to form modal verbs you will find in the unit Modal verbs.

Pattern:

The modal verb in the Past tense + participle 2 + werden
Das Paket musste heute bei der Post abgegeben werden.

Place in a sentence

In the main clause:
Der Mann musste sofort operiert werden.  

The word order in the sentence is the same as in the present tense.

In the subordinate clause:
Der Arzt sagte, dass der Mann sofort operiert werden musste.

Passive with modal verbs in the perfect tense

The passive voice of the perfect tense is formed using the auxiliary verb haben in the present tense, participle 2 of the main verb, the auxiliary verb werden and the modal verb in the infinitive.

Pattern:

The verb haben in the Present tense + participle 2 + werden + the modal verb in the infinitive
Das Paket hat heute bei der Post abgegeben werden müssen.

Place in a sentence

In the main clause:
Der Mann hat sofort operiert werden müssen.  
In a main sentence, the auxiliary verb haben is placed in the second position and must be in the appropriate person form, while the past participle (participle II), “werden” and the modal verb in the infinitive are positioned at the end of the sentence.

IN the dependent clause:
Der Arzt sagte, dass der Mannsofort hat operiert werden müssen.

In the subordinate clause, there's an interesting reversal: "haben" does not move to the end of the sentence as expected. Instead, it appears before the participle II. The correct order is as follows: "haben" + participle II + "werden" + modal verb in the infinitive.

Passive with the modal verbs in the pluperfect tense

The passive voice of the pluperfect tense is formed using the auxiliary verb haben in the past tense, participle 2 of the main verb, the auxiliary verb werden, and the modal verb in the infinitive.  

Pattern:

The verb haben in the Past tense + participle 2 + werden + the modal verb in the infinitive
Das Paket hatte heute bei der Post abgegeben werden müssen.

 Place in the sentence

In the main clause:
Der Mann hatte sofort operiert werden müssen.  
 
The word order in the sentence is the same as in the perfect.

In the subordinate clause:
Der Arzt sagte, dass der Mannsofort hatte operiert werden müssen.

Passive with modal verbs in the future I

The passive voice of the future I is formed using the auxiliary verb werden in the present tense, participle 2 of the main verb + werden in the infinitive + the modal verb in the infinitive.
Pattern:

The verb werden in the Present tense + participle 2 + werden + the modal verb in the infinitive
Das Paket wird heute bei der Post abgegeben werden müssen.

Place in the sentence

In the main clause:
Der Mann wird sofort operiert werden müssen.  

In the subordinate clause:
Der Arzt sagt, dass der Mann sofort wird operiert werden müssen.

Future I in the passive voice with a modal verb can be replaced by the present.

For example:

Der Arzt sagt, dass der Mann sofort operiert werden muss.

To indicate the future, you can use adverbs for the time that indicate the future: morgen, in zwei Wochen, ab kommenden Montag, … :

Der Arzt sagt, dass der Mann in zwei Wochen operiert werden muss.

Click on:
Gramatika Sadržaj

Passive with modal verbs in the future II

The Future II passive with modal verbs is too complicated even for German speakers and they don't use it at all. Frankly, you don't even need it. So we'll just bypass it :).

See more: