Analysis of passive voice use according to German language textbooks for adult foreign speakers

Aim of this study is to compare Norwegian and German passive voice and to describe problems that Norwegian students can have when acquiring German passive voice. The rules how to form passive voice in Norwegian and German are similar due to the fact that these languages are related. In both languages there exists two kinds of analytical passive voice - one is based on constructions with a verb "werden"/"bli" and the other with a verb "sein"/"vrere". In addition, there are two more kinds of passive-voice in Norwegian - a complex passive voice and a synthetic s-passive. Both in German and in Norwegian can be passive voice expressed also by other constructions - by so called paraphrases of passive. Although there exist equivalents for alm ost all these paraphrases in both languages, in Norwegian are the paraphrases used not so often as in German. As a part ofthe study there were analyzed sentences created by Norwegian students. These sentences should have expressed passive voice. Surprisingly, most common mi stakes were not in the expressions of passive voice, but in vocabulary that was used