What is the meaning of these grammatical forms involving "werden"?

Question

Reading a book recently, I find myself wondering often about the usage of "werden" in many contexts, such as in these examples: > (talking about a group of people smoking from a common pipe): **Sam wurde übergangen**, denn die Pfeife wäre nie wieder an den Mund eines Indianers gekommen, wenn ein Schwarzer daraus geraucht hätte." Why "wurde" and not "war übergangen"? Another example, not sure if this is the same thing, but also involves "werden" and got me wondering: > (...) so war zu vermuten, daß sie von ihrem jetzigen Besitzer den von ihm besiegten Indiandern **abgenommen worden waren**. Again, why not just "abgenommen waren"? And yet another: > Aber ich kalkuliere, daß es ihm sehr, sehr **schwer geworden sein wird**, über den Rio Grande zu kommen. Why not just "sehr schwer wird"? Do these forms have anything in common except the usage of "werden", why have they been used in these examples, and what is their particular shade of meaning?

Answer 1

In German, "werden" is used to express the future (Es wird morgen regnen - It's going to rain tomorrow), and to express the passive (Das Haus wurde 1620 gebaut - The house was built in 1620).

I believe that you are not confused about the use of "werden" to express the future, but about the other use that expresses the passive, because all your examples are passive structures:

1. Sam wurde uebergangen => Sam was skipped ("war uebergangen" would be incorrect!)
2. [...] dass sie [...] abgenommen worden waren [...] => that they had been taken from them => this is past perfect +passive
3. [...] sehr schwer geworden sein wird [...] => this is future perfect + passive

I recommend that you study the use of "werden" to express the passive including all its forms for past, present, and future. Especially the future is often confusing, because it uses "werden" twice, e.g. "Die Äpfel werden gegessen werden." (the apples will be eaten).