Like many native English speakers, I have a problem deciding when to use the Vorgangspassive in German. For instance I tend to use sentences like
Das Haus war im Jahr 1960 gebaut.
When what I mean to say is
Das Haus wurde im Jahr 1960 gebaut.
I know that the difference is that the house was already built in 1960 in the first example but actually built in (during) 1960 in the second. But I still make the mistake often when not concentrating.
I have suddenly hit on the idea of translating wird/wurde to gets/got in my mind. So
Das Haus wurde im Jahr 1960 gebaut.
Becomes
The house got built in the year 1960.
And the difference becomes very clear to me.
I have never seen this method or translation before and so I thought I would ask if it is valid, or if it could lead to comprehension problems for me as my German improves, before I start to use it.