We have gone through the Vorgangspassiv in both the present tense, and in the present perfect and past tenses. This week, we are going to look at another passive voice structure called the Zustandspassiv. This is often a bit confusing for English speakers, but the best way to explain the difference between these two is that the Vorgangspassiv focuses on the action, and the Zustandspassiv focuses on the resulting state. The word der Zustand means "the state" or "the condition," after all.  

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Here is a classic example of this difference:

Vorgangspassiv: Die Tür wird geschlossen. (The door is being closed.)
Zustandspassiv: Die Tür ist geschlossen. (The door is closed.)

The Zustandspassiv is also called the sein-passiv because it involves sein as an auxiliary verb rather than werden:

conjugation of sein (present tense) + past participle

This means that the participle looks and functions like an adjective. Here are more examples:

So, das Gericht ist jetzt fertig gekocht.

So, the dish is now cooked.

Caption 69, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte: Rheinland-Pfalz

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In the Vorgangspassiv, we would say Das Gericht wird jetzt gekocht, which would mean that the food is still being prepared. With sein, this sentence in the Zustandspassiv tells us that the food is ready! 

Sie sind lang und dünn und sie sind aus Holz gemacht.

They are long and thin and they are made of wood.

Captions 27-28, Deutsch mit Eylin: Denk schnell!

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Für mich ist hier gar nichts geklärt.

For me, nothing is cleared up here.

Caption 14, Heidi: Ein schlechter Tausch

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If we take the Zustandspassiv into the past tense, we have the same structure featuring sein in the preterite:

conjugation of sein (past tense) + past participle

Und das war auch sehr schön gemacht mit den ganzen Stationen.

And that was done very nicely with all of the stations.

Caption 69, Erstes Frankfurter „Schuljahr der Nachhaltigkeit“: Abschlussfeier

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Der Schuster sah verwundert auf, denn er wusste, das Fenster war geschlossen.

The Shoemaker looked up in surprise, for he knew that the window was closed.

Caption 14, Märchen: Sagenhaft Die Wichtelmänner

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Da war ich noch nicht geboren.

I wasn't born yet.

Caption 17, Nicos Weg: Heimat

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As we often experience with the perfect tense, the Zustandspassiv im Perfekt is best translated with the English simple past tense. Here is the structure and one example: 

conjugation of sein (past tense) + past participle + gewesen

Ja, ich... das ist nicht geplant gewesen, ne?

Yes, I... that was not planned, right?

Caption 6, Moses Pelham: Solo-Album

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Further Learning
Write a few simple sentences in different tenses, and then transform them using the Vorgangspassiv and Zustandspassiv. You can find more examples of these structures on Yabla German.

Da gibt es Zahlen und man muss addieren, subtrahieren, multiplizieren und dividieren.

There are numbers, and you have to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

Captions 4-5, Deutsch mit Eylin: Denk schnell!

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Welches Fach ist das? Ja, das ist Mathematik oder Mathe.

Which subject is this? Yes, this is mathematics or math.

Captions 7-8, Deutsch mit Eylin: Denk schnell!

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To add (addieren), subtract (subtrahieren), multiply (multiplizieren) and divide (dividieren) form the four elements of elementary arithmetic (die Grundrechenarten). And we all know that 1 + 1 = 2, which we say out loud as "one plus one equals two." But how do we say these basic calculations in German?

With addition (die Addition), we use the plus sign ("+," das Pluszeichen). To make an equation (die Gleichung), we also need the equal sign ("=," das Gleichheitszeichen).

To learn to speak a basic equation, let's take the basic 1 + 1 = 2 as an example:

Eins plus eins ist gleich zwei.
One plus one equals two.

Sometimes native German speakers drop the gleich and just say ist. It's also common to hear the slang version, much as in English:

Eins and eins macht zwei.
One and one makes two.

Let's keep to the more formal versions from here on out, though!

In subtraction (die Subtraktion), we use the minus sign (das Minuszeichen):

Eins minus eins ist gleich null.
One minus one equals zero.

With multiplication (die Multiplikation), you'll see the multiplication sign ("x," das Malzeichen). Note that mal is often used in German to refer to the frequency or number of times something has happened, such as in "once" (einmal), "twice" (zweimal) or "three times" (dreimal).

Zwei mal zwei ist gleich vier.
Two times two equals four.

The last section of elementary arithmetic is division (die Division). This uses the division sign (das Geteiltzeichen) which may be written as ":," "÷," or "/." 

Vier geteilt durch zwei ist gleich zwei.
Four divided by two equals two.

Native German speakers sometimes drop geteilt and simply say vier durch zwei, for example.

So while even the basic German math terms aren't super easy, at least they're easier than math itself.

Ich fand Mathe immer super ätzend.

I always found math really unpleasant.

Caption 22, Nicos Weg: Schule

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Further Learning
Get together with another student and write out some numerical addition, subtraction, multiplication and division equations. Then take turns reading them aloud. You can also go to Yabla German and search for Mathe and Mathematik to find some videos where the topic is discussed.

We know you're learning German, but what other subjects have you studied? Even if you're not currently in school, it's always interesting to talk with people about what they studied, and which subjects are still relevant to their lives today. 

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First, we can start with the natural sciences and the applied sciences, respectively called die Naturwissenschaften and die angewandten Wissenschaften in German. 

Jan hat heute seine Physikarbeit zurückbekommen.

Jan got his physics paper back today. 

Caption 2, The Simple Physics: Schrödingers Katze

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Ja, das ist Mathematik oder Mathe.

Yes, this is mathematics or math.

Caption 8, Deutsch mit Eylin: Denk schnell!

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...das heißt wir gewinnen zusätzlich noch in dem Bereich Biologie auch eine gewisse Kapazität.

...which means we also gain a certain capacity in the field of biology.

Caption 40, Für Tierfreunde: Przewalski-Wildpferde

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Ich habe schnell gemerkt, dass mich Elektrotechnik sehr interessiert

I quickly noticed that electrical engineering really interests me.

Caption 10, Deutsche Welle: Lieber Ausbildung als Studium

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In these next captions, you will find some fields that relate to the social sciences, or die Sozialwissenschaften, and the world of business. 

Ja? Das wäre so eine Geschichte, ähm, mit interdisziplinärem Input aus der Sportwissenschaft, der Sportmedizin, der Psychologie und der Soziologie.

Yes? That would be something, um, with interdisciplinary input from sport sciences, sports medicine, psychology, and sociology.

Captions 65-66, TEDx: Lebenslange Fitness

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Ich hab schon in Spanien zwei Semester Jura studiert.

I already studied law in Spain for two semesters.

Caption 7, Nicos Weg: Am Bankautomaten

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Ich studiere Wirtschaft und arbeite in einem Café.

I study economics and work in a café.

Caption 27, Magie: Die Zaubershow

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The humanities, or die Geisteswissenschaften, include history, languages, literature, philosophy, and often the arts as well. For more on the arts, you can refer to two recent lessons, one which covered the visual arts, and the other on the performing arts. 

Kunstgeschichte wird ja von Kunsthistorikern gemacht. Da haben Sie recht, das waren immer Männer.

Art history is written by art historians. You are right about that, those were always men.

Caption 25, Malerei: Impressionistinnen

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Interessierst du dich für Literatur?

Are you interested in literature?

Caption 9, Nicos Weg: Das macht mir Spaß!

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Further Learning
Based on what you read above and have found on Yabla German, see if you can figure out the meanings of the following: die Politikwissenschaft, die Kulturwissenschaft, die Religionswissenschaft. Some disciplines, like die Philosophie, die Geografie, die Geologie, die Anthropologie, or die Medizin, have similar names to their English counterparts and may be easy to identify. And then, of course, some subjects have simply adopted the English term, such as das Marketing and das Management.