Breakdown of Iedere acteur moet door de visagist geschminkt worden.
moeten
to have to, must
worden
to become
door
by (agent in a passive sentence)
de acteur
the actor
ieder
every / each
schminken
to put on makeup
de visagist
the makeup artist
Questions & Answers about Iedere acteur moet door de visagist geschminkt worden.
Why does this sentence use moet ... geschminkt worden instead of moet ... geschminkt zijn?
This highlights the difference between dynamic and stative modal passives! We use moet worden because it describes an action that needs to take place (dynamic obligation). The actor needs to sit in the chair and undergo the process of having makeup applied. If the sentence used moet zijn, it would describe a required state (stative necessity) meaning the actor must already have their makeup on, regardless of who did it or when.
How is the person performing the action indicated in this passive sentence?
The word door (by) introduces the agent—the person actually doing the action. While iedere acteur is the grammatical subject receiving the action, door de visagist tells us that the makeup artist is the one physically doing the work.
Could I use elke acteur instead of iedere acteur?
Yes, absolutely. Both iedere and elke mean 'every' or 'each' and are interchangeable before singular nouns like acteur. Elke is slightly more common in casual, spoken Dutch, while iedere can sound a bit more formal or written.
Why is the verb block at the end specifically ordered as geschminkt worden and not worden geschminkt?
In a main clause with a modal verb (moet), the remaining verbs are pushed to the end. When you have a past participle (geschminkt) and an infinitive (worden) together at the end of the sentence, the past participle almost always comes first in standard Dutch.
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