Breakdown of Iedere klacht wordt door de manager behandeld.
worden
to become
de klacht
the complaint
de manager
the manager
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
ieder
every / each
behandelen
to treat / to discuss (cover a topic) / to handle
Questions & Answers about Iedere klacht wordt door de manager behandeld.
Why does the sentence use iedere instead of elke?
You could actually use either! Iedere and elke both mean "every" and are mostly interchangeable in Dutch. Iedere can sound slightly more formal. Because klacht (complaint) is a de-word, both options get an -e at the end, becoming iedere or elke. If it were a het-word, it would be ieder or elk.
Why is wordt used here to mean "is"?
This is a passive sentence describing an ongoing or habitual action. In English, we say "is handled", but Dutch uses the verb worden (to become) to form the present passive. If you used is behandeld, it would change the meaning to the perfect tense: "has been handled" (meaning the action is already finished).
Doesn't door usually mean "through"? Why does it mean "by" here?
You are right that door often translates to "through" when talking about location or movement. However, in passive sentences, door is the specific word used to introduce the person or thing doing the action, exactly like "by" in English.
Why does the verb behandeld go at the very end of the sentence?
This is a standard Dutch word order rule. When a sentence has a helper verb (wordt) and a past participle (behandeld), the conjugated helper verb takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle is pushed to the very end of the clause.
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