Afrikaans passives typically employ word become (cf. (1a)) or is was, were(cf. (1b)) as auxiliaries. The word Word, also an inchoative copula, expresses a durative or activity oriented passive in the present tense, while is expresses a more stative past tense.While is passives may also express the pluperfect tense (cf. (1c)), was was/were, had been is used more specifically for the pluperfect (cf. (1d)). However, under the influence of English, was also competes with is to express the simple past tense (cf. (1e)). Passive auxiliaries also form perfects, viz. geword het for word and gewees het for wees (cf. (1c)). Passive auxiliaries, like other auxiliaries, are placed in the second position in a declarative clause or the first position in yes-no questions, or alternatively at the end of a clause-final verb cluster.

The main verb in passive clauses is typically transitive or ditransitive, and in the latter case both direct and indirect objects may be promoted to subject.

Intransitive verbs and verbs with prepositional objects also enter into passive constructions, though the verbs selected are restricted to purposeful human actions:

Passive and copulative clauses may be structurally ambiguous (a) because is may be either auxiliary or copula and (b) because adjectives, which typically feature in copulative constructions, often derive from and resemble past participles. There is also a temporal difference in that is, a present tense copula, signifies past tense in a passive construction. In a present tense context an is clause, such as (4a), would be disambiguated as a copular clause, while explicit reference to an agent would indicate that the clause is a past tense passive, e.g. (4b).

In the case of word ambiguity is not excluded but unlikely. Though word is also used as copula, its dynamic characteristic is not compatible with a stative interpretation of a past participle as adjective:

On the other hand, the copula raak become, which is occasionally used as passive auxiliary, is preferred in copula function:

Some past participles are formally recognisable as departicipial adjectives in that they retain the morphology of Dutch strong or weak past participles, e.g. gebroke broken, gewaagd daring, in contrast to their regularised form in purely verbal usage, e.g. gebreek break.PST.PTCP and gewaag dare.PST.PTCP).