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.

If you're studying German, you're learning about the accusative and dative cases. You've likely looked at many sentences with a direct and indirect object that look similar to this one:

Also: Ich schenke ihm ein Ticket fürs Theater.

So, I give him a ticket to the theater.

Caption 15, Nicos Weg: Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

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In the sentence above, the ticket is the direct object and the pronoun "him" is the indirect object in the dative case, which is why it is ihm and not ihn. Generally in German, the direct object is associated with the accusative case. Here's a classic example, with the accusative personal pronoun dich as the direct object:

Weil ich dich liebe, noch immer und mehr.

Because I love you, still and more.

Caption 9, Marius Müller-Westernhagen Weil Ich Dich Liebe

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However, there are a number of common verbs that normally take an object in the dative case, even when there is no object with the accusative case in the sentence. You may already be familiar with this sort of structure from these common phrases:

Wir lassen jetzt die Sabine unser Gericht probieren und hoffen, dass es ihr schmeckt.

We'll now let Sabine taste our dish and hope that she likes it.

Captions 74-75, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte Rheinland-Pfalz

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Ich habe den ersten Teil schon gesehen und der hat mir sehr gut gefallen.

I saw the first part already and I liked it a lot.

Caption 43, Diane erklärt: Fragewörter

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Das braune Portemonnaie gehört dir, oder?

The brown wallet belongs to you, right?

Caption 18, Nicos Weg: Meine Familie

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Here are some other verbs that follow this pattern, each with a dative personal pronoun:

Du kannst mir vertrauen. Ich will dir helfen.

You can trust me. I want to help you.

Caption 7, Die Pfefferkörner: Cybermobbing

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Und ich hätte wirklich stundenlang dir zuhören können.

And I really could have listened to you for hours.

Caption 42, The Voice of German: Isabel Nolte singt „Als ich fortging“

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Lisa, ich gratuliere dir.

Lisa, I congratulate you.

Caption 7, Nicos Weg: Das ist mir wichtig!

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Bleib bei mir, verzeih mir.

Stay with me, forgive me.

Caption 16, Clueso: Weil ich dich liebe

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Further Learning
Try to create sentences with other common verbs that follow this pattern: danken, dienen, einfallen, fehlen, folgen, gelingen, passieren, schwer fallen, wehtun, and widersprechen. You can find an extensive list on this website and will also find examples with these verbs on Yabla German.

I'll bet by now most of you already know some of the German words for basic cutlery, so let's review those today and also take a look at a few eating utensil variations that you may not be as familiar with, starting with your basic spoon (der Löffel):

Brauche ich eigentlich auch einen großen Löffel?

Do I actually need a large spoon too?

Caption 22, Zu Besuch bei Jenny - In der Wohnung

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Now let's look at some special types of spoons: 

Und dann kommen da jetzt zwei Esslöffel Natronpulver rein.

And then we now add two tablespoons of baking soda.

Caption 45, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte - Bayern

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Ein halber Teelöffel frisch gemahlener schwarzer Pfeffer...

Half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper...

Caption 38, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte - Rheinland-Pfalz

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Here's a list of some of the many kinds of spoons: Butterlöffel, Dessertlöffel, Eierlöffel, Eislöffel, Gemüselöffel, Grapefruitlöffel, Honiglöffel, Kaffeelöffel, Kartoffellöffel, Marmeladenlöffel, Sahnelöffel, Salatlöffel, Saucenlöffel, Suppenlöffel, and Zuckerlöffel.

And now on to the basic knife (das Messer):

Mit dem Messer könnte ich ein bisschen Butter nehmen.

With the knife I could take a little bit of butter.

Caption 11, Jenny - beim Frühstück

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And some specialty knives:

Und wenn kein Fischmesser vorhanden ist, warum sollte man nicht ein normales Messer nehmen?
And if there's no fish knife available, why not use a regular knife?

As well as: Brotmesser, Dessertmesser, Obstmesser, Steakmesser, Tafelmesser, and Tortenmesser.

And last but not least, the fork (die Gabel): 

Ich brauche zum Essen noch eine Gabel.

In order to eat I need a fork.

Caption 21, Zu Besuch bei Jenny - In der Wohnung

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And some specialty forks: 

Links vom Teller liegen die große Gabel, die Fischgabel und eine kleine Gabel für die Vorspeisen.
To the left of the plate are the large fork, the fish fork and a small fork for the appetizers.

As well as: Bratengabel, Dessertgabel, Essgabel, Fleischgabel, Kartoffelgabel, Ofengabel, and Vorlegegabel.

Remember too that der Löffel is a masculine noun, die Gabel feminine, and das Messer a neuter noun. If you can remember the word order Löffel, Gabel, and Messer, it's the same gender order as der Vater, die Mutter, and das Kind. These genders remain applicable for all of the words using -löffel, -gabel, and -messer as their root words.

Further Learning
Try to correctly translate the specialty cutleries listed above into English and read the German Wikipedia article about cutlery. For some even more complete lists of the different types of spoons, knives, and forks—some of them having nothing to do with cutlery–see the Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (DWDS) pages for spoons, knives, and forks.  You can also search for Löffel, Gabel and Messer on German Yabla and see the ways the words are used in real spoken contexts by native German speakers.