Breakdown of Die Möbel gehören regelmäßig abgestaubt.
regelmäßig
regularly
die Möbel
the furniture (plural only)
gehören
to need to be (done)
abstauben
to dust
Questions & Answers about Die Möbel gehören regelmäßig abgestaubt.
Why is gehören used here instead of a passive with werden?
Using gehören + Past Participle (abgestaubt) is a common alternative to the passive voice used to express necessity. It implies that something needs or ought to be done. It means the exact same thing as Die Möbel müssen regelmäßig abgestaubt werden, but it is shorter and highly common in conversational German.
Does gehören still mean "to belong to" in this context?
No. When gehören is immediately followed by a past participle, it loses its normal meaning of ownership and instead means "needs to be done". If you wanted to say the furniture belongs to someone, you would use a dative pronoun instead of a participle, like Die Möbel gehören mir (The furniture belongs to me).
Why is the verb gehören in the plural form when the English translation says "furniture needs" in the singular?
In English, "furniture" is an uncountable singular noun. In German, Möbel is almost always used in the plural to refer to a collection of furniture. Because the subject is plural, the verb must be plural (gehören). If you want to talk about one specific piece of furniture, you would use the singular das Möbelstück.
Why is the participle abgestaubt instead of geabstaubt?
The infinitive is abstauben (to dust), which is a separable verb. When forming the past participle of a separable verb, the standard -ge- is placed between the prefix (ab-) and the verb stem (staubt), creating abgestaubt.
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