Word
Es war unheimlich, und das große Tor war verriegelt.
Meaning
It was eerie, and the large gate was bolted.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Es war unheimlich, und das große Tor war verriegelt.
What is the difference between war verriegelt and wurde verriegelt here?
wurde verriegelt would be the action passive (Vorgangspassiv), meaning someone was in the process of bolting the gate right then. war verriegelt is the stative passive (Zustandspassiv). It uses war plus the past participle to describe a finished state: the gate was already bolted, and that is just the condition it was in when the speaker arrived.
Why does the past participle verriegelt not start with ge-?
The base verb is verriegeln (to bolt or lock), which is related to the noun der Riegel (the bolt). Verbs starting with the inseparable prefix ver- never take the ge- prefix in their past participle form.
Why is the adjective ending -e in das große Tor?
Tor is a neuter noun acting as the subject (nominative case) here. Because it comes right after a definite article (das), the adjective takes the weak ending -e. If there were no article, it would need the strong ending -es (as in großes Tor).
Why does war stay in position 2 in the second half of the sentence, instead of moving to the end?