The syntactic structure of the active sentence plays an important role in the conversion of a sentence from the active to the passive voice. If there is an accusative object, the conversion follows the rules of the personal passive. Otherwise, the rules of the impersonal passive are applied.
| active | passive | ||
| Er isst eine Pizza. |
conversion
|
Eine Pizza wird gegessen. | personal passive |
| Man wartet lange. | Es wird lange gewartet. | impersonal passive | |