Breakdown of Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen, die ich meiner Familie zeige.
Questions & Answers about Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen, die ich meiner Familie zeige.
Beim Zeichnen is a contraction and a so‑called “verbal noun” construction.
Literal meaning
- bei dem Zeichnen → beim Zeichnen
- bei = at / while / during
- dem = dative singular article “the”
- Zeichnen (from the verb zeichnen = to draw) used as a noun = drawing
So literally: “during the drawing” or “while (I am) drawing”.
Why is Zeichnen capitalized?
In German, nouns are capitalized. Here, the infinitive zeichnen is turned into a noun (a Gerund in English terms).- As a verb: Ich will zeichnen. – “I want to draw.” (not capitalized)
- As a noun: Beim Zeichnen entspanne ich mich. – “I relax while drawing.” (capitalized)
So beim Zeichnen literally is “at the drawing,” but idiomatically it means “while drawing” / “when I’m drawing.”
Actually, both word orders are possible in German main clauses:
- Kleine Zeichnungen entstehen.
- Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen.
The rule in German main clauses is: the finite verb is always in the second position (the V2 rule), but the first position can be many things (subject, adverbial, prepositional phrase, etc.).
Here, the structure is:
- 1st position (Vorfeld): Beim Zeichnen
- 2nd position (verb): entstehen
- rest of the clause: kleine Zeichnungen
So:
- Beim Zeichnen | entstehen | kleine Zeichnungen
= While drawing, small drawings come into being.
If you move the subject to first position, you can say:
- Kleine Zeichnungen | entstehen | beim Zeichnen.
Both are grammatically correct. The chosen version emphasizes “while drawing” by putting it first.
Entstehen means “to arise,” “to come into being,” “to be created (as a result of a process).”
In this sentence:
- Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen
→ “While drawing, small drawings come into being / are created.”
If you said:
- Beim Zeichnen werden kleine Zeichnungen gezeichnet.
this is grammatically possible, but sounds clumsy and redundant (“While drawing, small drawings are drawn.”).
Entstehen nicely captures the idea that the drawings appear as a natural result of the activity of drawing, not that someone is passively drawing them in a rigid passive construction. It’s idiomatic and concise here.
Both Zeichnungen and Bilder can mean “pictures,” but they are not identical:
Zeichnung (Zeichnungen)
- specifically: a drawing (made with pencil, pen, charcoal, etc.)
- emphasizes the medium/technique of drawing.
Bild (Bilder)
- more general: picture / image / painting / photo, etc.
- could be a painting, a photo, or a drawing – the word itself doesn’t tell you.
So kleine Zeichnungen specifically means “small drawings”, not just any pictures.
The comma introduces a relative clause:
- Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen,
die ich meiner Familie zeige.
Here:
- die is a relative pronoun referring back to Zeichnungen.
- The whole part die ich meiner Familie zeige gives additional information about the Zeichnungen (which ones? → the ones I show my family).
In German, relative clauses are always set off by commas:
- Das ist das Buch, das ich lese. – “That’s the book that I’m reading.”
- Hier sind die Freunde, die mich besucht haben. – “Here are the friends who visited me.”
So the comma is obligatory because a relative clause follows.
We need to look at gender, number, and case:
Antecedent (the noun being referred to):
- Zeichnungen
- Singular: die Zeichnung → feminine
- Plural: die Zeichnungen
Relative pronoun must agree in:
- Gender/number: same as Zeichnungen → feminine plural
- Case: determined by its role in the relative clause, not the main clause.
In the relative clause die ich meiner Familie zeige:
- ich = subject (nominative)
- zeige = verb
- die = direct object of zeige (accusative plural)
- meiner Familie = indirect object (dative)
So we need accusative plural relative pronoun for feminine plural:
- die (accusative plural) is correct.
Der and den would be wrong here:
- der = nominative feminine singular / genitive masculine or neuter singular, etc.
- den = accusative masculine singular OR dative plural, but not accusative feminine plural.
Therefore, die is the only correct choice.
This is about case:
The verb zeigen (to show) normally takes:
- someone (indirect object, dative) → to whom you show something
- something (direct object, accusative) → what you show
Pattern:
- jemandem (Dative) etwas (Accusative) zeigen
→ show someone something
In the relative clause die ich meiner Familie zeige:
- die = “them” (the drawings) → accusative direct object
- meiner Familie = “to my family” → dative indirect object
The feminine dative singular of meine Familie is:
- Nominative: meine Familie
- Dative: meiner Familie
So meiner Familie is required because it is in the dative case after zeigen.
In German, just like in English, the relative pronoun already stands for the object, so you must not repeat it with another pronoun.
Compare in English:
- Correct: “These are the drawings that I show to my family.”
- Incorrect: “These are the drawings that I show them to my family.”
The same logic applies in German:
- die ich meiner Familie zeige
- die = them (direct object)
- meiner Familie = to my family
If you added sie (“them”), you’d be doubling the object, which is ungrammatical:
- ✗ die ich sie meiner Familie zeige – wrong.
German Präsens (present tense) is more flexible than English present simple:
- ich zeige can mean:
- “I show (right now / in general / usually)”
- sometimes even “I am going to show” (near future, depending on context).
In this sentence:
- Beim Zeichnen entstehen kleine Zeichnungen, die ich meiner Familie zeige.
There is no explicit time marker, so the natural reading is habitual / typical action:
- “When I draw, small drawings are created, which I (usually / typically) show to my family.”
English would probably say “I show them to my family” or “I end up showing them to my family” to capture the habitual sense; German doesn’t need an extra word for that – the simple present covers it.
Yes, here are a couple of slightly simpler variants:
Wenn ich zeichne, mache ich kleine Zeichnungen, die ich meiner Familie zeige.
- Uses wenn ich zeichne instead of beim Zeichnen.
- Uses mache instead of entstehen, which feels more concrete and learner‑friendly.
Beim Zeichnen mache ich kleine Bilder, die ich meiner Familie zeige.
- Keeps beim Zeichnen but replaces entstehen with mache.
- Uses Bilder instead of Zeichnungen, which some learners find more familiar at first.
The original sentence is perfectly natural; these versions just use more common vocabulary for learners.