Breakdown of Wie wird dieses Produkt hergestellt?
wie
how
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
das Produkt
the product
herstellen
to manufacture
Questions & Answers about Wie wird dieses Produkt hergestellt?
Why do we use wird here instead of ist to mean 'is'?
This sentence uses the process passive (Vorgangspassiv) to focus on an action happening right now. German forms this passive voice using werden (here as wird) plus the past participle hergestellt. While English uses 'is manufactured', translating it directly with ist in German would change the meaning to a state (Zustandspassiv), implying the manufacturing process is already completely finished.
Why is the word hergestellt all the way at the end of the sentence?
This follows the standard German sentence bracket rule. In a passive sentence, the conjugated helping verb wird takes the second position (right after the question word Wie), and the past participle hergestellt gets pushed to the very end of the clause.
What is the base verb for hergestellt, and why is the -ge- in the middle?
The infinitive verb is herstellen (to manufacture or produce). Because it is a separable verb made of the prefix her- and the verb stellen, the past participle is formed by inserting -ge- right between the prefix and the main verb stem.
Why is the ending on the pronoun dieses and not diesen?
The word Produkt is a neuter noun (das Produkt). In a passive sentence, the thing being acted upon becomes the grammatical subject, which must always be in the nominative case. Therefore, the demonstrative pronoun takes the neuter nominative ending -es.
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