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Jedes Bild wird mit einem feinen Pinsel gemalt.

Jedes Bild wird mit einem feinen Pinsel gemalt.
Each picture is painted with a fine brush.
FromLesson 17inHardcore German
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Breakdown of Jedes Bild wird mit einem feinen Pinsel gemalt.

mit
with
das Bild
the picture
jedes
each
gemalt werden
to be painted
fein
fine
der Pinsel
the brush

Questions & Answers about Jedes Bild wird mit einem feinen Pinsel gemalt.

Why is the sentence using the passive voice (wird gemalt) instead of an active construction?

In German the passive shifts focus from the doer to the action or the object. It’s formed with the auxiliary werden in the present tense (wird) + past participle (gemalt). Here, the painting itself is emphasized rather than who paints it. The active equivalent would be: Jemand malt jedes Bild mit einem feinen Pinsel
or
Man malt jedes Bild mit einem feinen Pinsel.

Why is Jedes Bild in the nominative case rather than accusative?
In passive constructions the original direct object becomes the grammatical subject and therefore takes the nominative case. So although semantically Bild is still what’s being painted, grammatically Jedes Bild is the subject and appears in the nominative.
Why is the prepositional phrase mit einem feinen Pinsel in the dative case?

The preposition mit always requires the dative case in German. That means the noun phrase following it must be marked for dative:
ein feiner Pinsel (Nom.) → einem feinen Pinsel (Dat.).

Why does the adjective fein take the ending -en in feinen Pinsel?

After an indefinite article in the dative masculine singular, German uses the weak adjective declension, which requires the adjective to end in -en. Hence:
einem (Dat. masc.) + feinen + Pinsel.

Can I move mit einem feinen Pinsel to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. German word order allows you to front different elements for emphasis as long as the finite verb remains in second position. You can say:
Mit einem feinen Pinsel wird jedes Bild gemalt.
The meaning stays the same.

Why does the past participle gemalt appear at the end of the sentence?
In German main clauses with a compound verb (here wird + gemalt for the passive), the finite verb stays in the second slot and the non‑finite part (the past participle) goes to the end. This is standard word order for tenses beyond the simple present and for passive constructions.

More from this lesson

das Museumdie AusstellungIn dem Museum wird heute eine neue Ausstellung gezeigt.das Bildder MalerDie Ausstellung zeigt Bilder eines modernen Malers.jedesgemalt werden
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.

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