298 The Loom of Language

expressed by the simple present with or without an explicit particle
(e g soon\ or adverbial expression (e g. next week} as in all Teutonic
languages In literary German the place of shall is taken by WERDEN,
the common Germanic helper in passive expressions, e g

ich werde kommen — I shall come
er wird kommert = he will come
Sie> sie werden kommen = we shall come, you> they will come

Similarly, when should or would are used after a condition (e g if he
came I should see him} in contradistinction to situations in which they
signify compulsion (you should know), they are translated by the past,
wurde If followed by have, the latter is translated by sein (be), e g
er wurde gehen — he would go
er wurde gegangen sen) = he would have gone
This helper verb werden (worden in Dutch) is equivalent to the Old
English weorpan which means to become Its participle has persisted as
an flffiy in forward, inward., etc It is used (like its Dutch equivalent) in
passive expressions where we should use be, and the German verb to be
then replaces our verb to have, e g
er wird geiiort = he is heard
er wurde gehort = he was heat d
er ist gehort worden — he has been heard
er war gehoit worden = he had been heard
Unfortunately it is not true to say that we can always use the parts of
werden to translate those of the verb be, when it precedes a past parti-
ciple in what looks like a passive construction Sometimes the German
construction is more like our own, i e sein (be) replaces werden To
know whether a German would use one or the other, the best thing to
do is to apply the following tests where it is possible to insert already
in an English sentence of this type, the correct German equivalent is
sein, e g
Ungluckhcherweise war der Fisch (bereits) gefangen
Unluckily the fish was (already) caught
In all other circumstances use werden. It can always be used if the
subject of the equivalent active statement is explicitly mentioned. '
The German equivalents for some English verbs which take a direct
object do not behave like typical transitive verbs winch can be followed
by the accusative case-form of a noun or pronoun The equivalent of the
English direct object has the dative case-form which usually stands for