Die Raumkapazität bestimmt die Bestuhlung.

Because both Raumkapazität and Bestuhlung are feminine singular nouns.

In German, die can be:

• nominative feminine singular: die Raumkapazität
• accusative feminine singular: die Bestuhlung

So even though both noun phrases use die, they are not in the same case:

• die Raumkapazität = subject, nominative
• die Bestuhlung = direct object, accusative

This is very common in German: the article does not always show a visible difference between subject and object.

In this sentence, you mainly know from word order and normal sentence structure.

German main clauses usually follow this pattern:

• subject
  • verb
    • object

So:

• Die Raumkapazität = subject
• bestimmt = verb
• die Bestuhlung = object

Since both noun phrases use die, the case marking alone does not help much here. A native speaker relies on:

1. the usual word order
2. the logic of the sentence

Semantically, it also makes sense that the room capacity determines the seating, not the other way around.

In normal reading, no. The natural interpretation is:

• Die Raumkapazität = subject
• die Bestuhlung = object

However, this is a good question because German sometimes allows ambiguity when the article forms look the same.

If you changed the order to:

• Die Bestuhlung bestimmt die Raumkapazität.

then the meaning would normally switch, because now Die Bestuhlung comes first and is understood as the subject.

So yes, the article forms themselves are ambiguous here, but the word order resolves it.

Bestuhlung refers to the seating setup, seat arrangement, or chair layout in a room.

It does not usually mean simply chairs as objects. It is more about:

• how many chairs there are
• how they are arranged
• what seating format is used

For example, it can refer to setups like:

• theater seating
• classroom seating
• banquet seating

So Bestuhlung is a somewhat formal or technical noun often used in event planning, venues, conference rooms, and fire-safety or capacity contexts.

Because German very often forms compound nouns by joining words together.

Here:

• Raum = room
• Kapazität = capacity

Together:

• Raumkapazität = room capacity

This is completely normal in German. English often writes such expressions as two words, but German usually combines them into one.

A useful rule:

• In German compounds, the last part is the main noun.
• So Raumkapazität is a kind of Kapazität.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So:

• der Raum
• die Kapazität
• die Raumkapazität
• die Bestuhlung

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.

Bestimmt is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb bestimmen.

The infinitive is:

• bestimmen = to determine, to decide, to define

Conjugation in the present tense:

• ich bestimme
• du bestimmst
• er/sie/es bestimmt
• wir bestimmen
• ihr bestimmt
• sie/Sie bestimmen

Since die Raumkapazität is singular, the verb is:

• bestimmt

Because German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb normally comes in the second position.

In this sentence:

• position 1: Die Raumkapazität
• position 2: bestimmt
• then: die Bestuhlung

This is one of the core word-order rules in German.

For example, if you moved something else to the front, the verb would still stay second:

• Heute bestimmt die Raumkapazität die Bestuhlung.

Now:

• position 1: Heute
• position 2: bestimmt

It is active.

The subject is doing the action:

• Die Raumkapazität bestimmt ...

A passive version would look different, for example:

• Die Bestuhlung wird von der Raumkapazität bestimmt.

That means:

• The seating is determined by the room capacity.

So the original sentence is a straightforward active transitive sentence.

Yes, you could say that, but it is less compact and usually less natural in this kind of formal context.

Compare:

• die Raumkapazität = standard compound noun, concise and typical
• die Kapazität des Raums = more analytic phrase, also correct

German often prefers the compound noun when such a term is common.

So in practical or administrative language, Raumkapazität sounds very normal.

A few points may be useful:

• Raumkapazität
  roughly: ROWM-ka-pa-tsi-TET
• bestimmt
  roughly: be-SHTIMT
• Bestuhlung
  roughly: be-SHTOO-loong

Things to notice:

• st at the beginning of a syllable is usually pronounced sht in standard German, so be-stimmt sounds like be-shtimmt
• z in Kapazität is pronounced ts
• -ung in Bestuhlung is pronounced like oong, not like English ung

Also, German compounds usually keep a clear stress pattern, with a strong stress early in the word and another on later important syllables, depending on the word.