Die Tür wird geöffnet or ist geöffnet: the action and the state
CEFR B2 · part 1
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
The passive in the past and with modals: wurde gebaut, muss gemacht werdenTaking the passive into the tenses that were missing. In the Präteritum only werden…Er sagte, er sei krank: the Konjunktiv I of the newspapersReporting what somebody else said without making it yours. German has a verb form just…Er muss krank sein: when the modal is not an order but a guessThe modals' second job, the one the dictionary does not mention. Er muss krank sein is…Der gestern von uns gekaufte Tisch: a whole clause wedged inside the articleReading —and taking apart— the construction that makes German technical prose look…dennoch, folglich, hingegen: the connectors of written GermanThe connectors that make a text read as if an adult wrote it: dennoch for concession…bestehen aus, auf or in: when the preposition changes the meaningThe advanced tier of prepositional verbs: the ones with SEVERAL prepositions that mean…The rule, in three lines
Two sentences that look alike and mean different things. Die Tür wird geöffnet is the ACTION: somebody is opening it right now. Die Tür ist geöffnet is the STATE: it is already open, and who opened it does not matter. Werden reports what is going on; sein says how the thing ended up.
The usual slip. Choosing the auxiliary from your own language instead of from the meaning, and defaulting to sein because it sounds like «is». The test that never fails: if gerade fits, it is an action and takes werden; if schon fits, it is a state and takes sein. A third hidden slip: the statal passive cannot name an agent with von, because a state has no author.
Why it catches you out. English uses «is» for both —«the door is opened» and «the door is open»— and only the adjective marks the state. That single «is» makes this the hardest German pair for an English speaker: you have to decide something your own language never asks you to decide.