Breakdown of Der Gang war dunkel, unheimlich und mit Spinnennetzen bedeckt.
sein
to be
und
and
mit
with
dunkel
dark
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
bedecken
to cover
unheimlich
eerie
der Gang
the corridor
das Spinnennetz
the cobweb
Questions & Answers about Der Gang war dunkel, unheimlich und mit Spinnennetzen bedeckt.
Is war ... bedeckt an example of the stative passive in this sentence?
Yes! The stative passive describes the condition of something after an action is finished. We form it in the past tense using war (or waren) plus the past participle (bedeckt). If it were the action passive describing the act of covering happening in the past, it would use wurde instead: Der Gang wurde bedeckt (The corridor was being covered).
Why is war used for both the adjectives (dunkel, unheimlich) and the past participle (bedeckt)?
Because the stative passive is built with the verb sein (to be), it treats the past participle almost exactly like an adjective describing a state. This makes it natural to mix normal adjectives (dunkel, unheimlich) and the stative passive (bedeckt) in a single list without needing to repeat the verb war.
Why doesn't the past participle bedeckt start with ge-?
The base verb is bedecken (to cover). Verbs that start with an inseparable prefix, like be-, ent-, er-, or ver-, never take the ge- prefix when forming the past participle. Therefore, it is simply bedeckt.
Why does Spinnennetzen end in an -n here?
The preposition mit always requires the dative case. The noun is plural (die Spinnennetze). In German, plural nouns in the dative case must add an extra -n to the end of the word (unless the plural already ends in -n or -s). Therefore, Spinnennetze becomes Spinnennetzen.
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