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I would like to show examples first of all. I have been confused over months.
Present: Ich bin verabredet. Past: Ich war verabredet.
Present: Ich werde überholt. Past: Ich wurde überholt. => to avoid confusion, I would like to change the example to - My Auto wurde überholt.
The question is, why in the second example I cannot say: ich bin oder war überholt? How could I better understand the sein and werden here.
In your context "werden" is a passive operation (Vorgangspassiv), where something is happing and "sein" is a passive state (Zustandspassiv), where something just is.
"Verabredet sein" is a state, you are 'verabredet'
"Überholt werden" is an operation, you are being 'überholt'
The difference is the one between überholen and überholt sein, which are totally different!
Überholen means to overtake/pass, like The car overtook/passed us at great speed. Überholt sein means to be outdated, like This version is outdated (get the most recent one).
You can only build a passive form of überholen, überholt sein is some kind of idiom which takes überholt as an attribute/adverb and not as a participle. So überholt is context sensitive, in connection with sein it is an attribute/adverb and in connection with werden it is a participle.
Ich bin überholt would mean I am outdated, which would most likely not be said by anyone ;-) Ich bin überholt worden means Someone has overtaken/passed me (because he is faster in the race still happening).
