Questions & Answers about Die Tür war fest geschlossen.
Why do we use war here instead of wurde?
This is the difference between an action and a state. If you used wurde geschlossen (the standard dynamic passive), it would mean the action of closing was happening at that moment: 'The door was being closed'. Using a form of sein like war creates the stative passive (Zustandspassiv), which focuses on the condition after the action is finished: the door was already in a shut state.
Is this sentence in the past tense because of geschlossen?
No, the past tense comes entirely from war (the simple past of sein). In the stative passive, the past participle (geschlossen) describes the state and stays exactly the same regardless of tense. If you wanted to say 'The door is firmly shut' right now, you would just change the helper verb to the present tense: Die Tür ist fest geschlossen.
Why doesn't geschlossen have an adjective ending like geschlossene to match the feminine noun die Tür?
Words only get adjective endings when they are placed directly in front of the noun they describe (for example, die fest geschlossene Tür). Because geschlossen is used here at the end of the sentence to describe the subject across a linking verb (war), it takes no ending at all.
What else can the word fest mean besides 'firmly'?
fest is a very common and versatile word. Depending on the context, it can mean 'solid' (as in solid food), 'fixed' (like a fixed schedule), or 'deeply' (like fest schlafen for sleeping soundly). Here, it acts as an adverb meaning 'firmly' or 'tightly'.
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