Breakdown of Jedes Namensschild muss gedruckt sein.
sein
to be
müssen
to have to, must
jeder
everyone / each
drucken
to print
das Namensschild
the name tag
Questions & Answers about Jedes Namensschild muss gedruckt sein.
Why is it gedruckt sein here instead of gedruckt werden?
This sentence uses the state passive (Zustandspassiv). It means the name tags must be in a completed, 'printed' state. If you used werden (muss gedruckt werden), it would be the action passive (Vorgangspassiv), meaning the actual action of printing them needs to happen. English uses 'be' for both, so you have to decide if you mean the action or the resulting state.
Why are gedruckt and sein placed at the very end of the sentence?
The modal verb muss takes the second position in the sentence and pushes the rest of the verb phrase to the end. For the state passive, this 'rest of the phrase' is always the past participle (gedruckt) followed by the infinitive sein.
Why does the sentence start with Jedes?
Jedes is the neuter nominative form of jeder (every). It takes the -es ending because the compound noun Namensschild takes its gender from its final word, das Schild (the sign or tag), and it acts as the subject of the sentence.
Why is there an 's' in the middle of Namensschild?
This is a connecting 's' (Fugen-s). It is often used in German compound nouns to link words together more smoothly, in this case connecting der Name (name) and das Schild (tag) to create das Namensschild.
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