Passive Alternatives

Use one of four alternatives. sich lassen plus infinitive: Das lässt sich machen. sein plus zu plus infinitive: Die Regeln sind zu beachten. An adjective in -bar: Der Text ist gut lesbar. Or the pronoun man: Man macht das so. Each carries passive meaning while keeping an active verb form.

With an infinitive, sich lassen means can be done. Das Problem lässt sich lösen is equivalent to das Problem kann gelöst werden, the problem can be solved. It is extremely common in spoken German because it is shorter than the werden passive with können and sounds far less bureaucratic.

It means something can be done or must be done, and context decides which. Die Arbeit ist bis morgen zu erledigen expresses obligation, the work has to be finished by tomorrow. Der Fehler ist nicht zu übersehen expresses possibility, the mistake cannot be overlooked. This construction is typical of instructions and formal writing.

The suffix -bar works like English -able or -ible and turns a verb into an adjective meaning able to be done. machen gives machbar, lesen gives lesbar, essen gives essbar, trinken gives trinkbar and erreichen gives erreichbar. It is highly productive, though some verbs prefer -lich instead, as in verständlich from verstehen.

In speech, yes. Germans usually say Das lässt sich machen rather than Das kann gemacht werden, because the alternatives are shorter and less formal. The werden passive still dominates technical and official texts. Mixing both gives your writing variety and stops long strings of gemacht werden constructions from piling up.