Passive alternatives and subjectless passives

German has several ways to express a passive meaning — that is, to foreground an action or state while backgrounding or omitting the agent — without using the standard werden-passive. These alternatives include the reflexive construction sich lassen + infinitive, adjectives ending in -bar, the construction sein + zu + infinitive, the bekommen-passive for dative recipients, and the indefinite pronoun man. Alongside these, German also allows subjectless passives: passive sentences in which no nominative subject exists, either because the verb is intransitive (Es wird getanzt) or because the logical object is dative rather than accusative (Ihm wurde geholfen). Understanding all of these structures allows you to read and produce the kind of formal, written German that is common in academic, journalistic, and administrative texts.

• man — use when the agent is unknown, unimportant, or represents people in general. Common in spoken and informal written German. Example: Man spricht hier Deutsch.

• sich lassen + infinitive — use to express that something is possible or feasible (equivalent to «can be done»). The subject is the thing being acted upon. Typical in formal and semi-formal registers.

• -bar adjectives — use to express that something is capable of being done. Formed from a verb stem + -bar (e.g. lösbar, lesbar, machbar). Used predicatively or attributively like any adjective.

• sein + zu + infinitive — use to express obligation or necessity (something must or is to be done). Very common in official instructions, regulations, and formal writing. Occasionally expresses possibility, but obligation is the primary reading.

• bekommen-passive — use when the recipient of an action (the dative argument) is the topic of the sentence. Bekommen acts as the auxiliary; the main verb appears as a past participle. The dative recipient becomes the grammatical subject.

• subjectless passives — use with intransitive verbs (no accusative object) to describe an activity without any participant as subject (Es wird getanzt), or with verbs that govern a dative object (helfen, danken, gratulieren), where the dative noun stays dative and no nominative subject is promoted.

Each construction has its own fixed pattern. The table below summarises the core structures.

• Promoting a dative object to subject in the passive.

  Verbs like helfen govern a dative object, not an accusative one. In the passive, that dative object cannot become a nominative subject. Incorrect: «*Er wurde geholfen.» Correct: «Ihm wurde geholfen.» The dative case is preserved; the verb stays third-person singular.

• Using a past participle after sich lassen.

  The sich lassen construction always takes a bare infinitive, not a past participle. Incorrect: «*Das lässt sich gelöst.» Correct: «Das lässt sich lösen.» Think of it as parallel to a modal verb: just as you say kann lösen, you say lässt sich lösen.

• Reading sein + zu + infinitive as ability only.

  Learners sometimes interpret ist einzureichen as «can be submitted», but the dominant meaning in formal contexts is obligation: «must be submitted». Context usually makes the reading clear — deadlines, rules, and instructions almost always signal obligation. When ability is intended, sich lassen or a -bar adjective is the more natural choice.