Breakdown of Der Turm auf dem Bild sieht sehr instabil aus.
sehr
very
das Bild
the picture
aussehen
to look (appear)
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
Questions & Answers about Der Turm auf dem Bild sieht sehr instabil aus.
Why does stabil take the prefix in- instead of the usual German un-?
Because stabil is a loanword of Latin origin. In German, adjectives borrowed from Latin or French often use Latin negative prefixes (in-, im-, il-, ir-) rather than the native Germanic un-. Interestingly, while English uses "unstable", German keeps the Latin prefix for this specific word!
How do I know when to use Latin prefixes like in- instead of un-?
A great rule of thumb is to look at the word's ending. Adjectives ending in classic foreign suffixes like -il, -ant, -ent, or -är (like instabil, intolerant, irregulär) are almost always Latin borrowings and will take one of the Latin prefixes.
Why is it auf dem Bild (dative) rather than accusative?
The preposition auf is a two-way preposition, meaning it can take either the accusative or the dative case. Here, it describes a static location: where the tower is physically depicted. Since it answers "where?" (position) rather than "where to?" (direction), it requires the dative case for the neuter noun das Bild.
What is aus doing at the very end of the sentence?