“ist gefegt” vs. “hat gefegt”

Question

I'm assuming "Sie fegte über die Bühne" could reasonably be translated as "She swept across the stage" and "Sie fegte die Bühne" as "She swept the stage".

The conjugation in an online resource gives these two alternatives: "ist gefegt" and "hat gefegt".

Would I be right in surmising that the first alternative applies to the first usage above and the second to the second? Thus:

"Sie ist über die Bühne gefegt"

"Sie hat die Bühne gefegt".

Answer 1

Your surmise seems right to me.

One of the cases where one should use "sein" for perfect tense is:

• With action verbs that denote a change of place and not necessarily just movement, e.g. tanzen

So, in your example, the verb "fegen" is conjugated in perfect tense using "sein" when it denotes a change of place or movement. For the other usage it's conjugated using "haben":

Sie ist über die Bühne gefegt: She swept across the stage.

Sie hat die Bühne gefegt: She swept the stage.

Also, reading an article about "Sein" and "Haben" would be helpful.

Answer 2

As a native speaker, my first thought was: you're right. "Sie fegte über die Bühne." translates as "She ran across the stage.", which describes a movement like "Sie ist gelaufen" ("She walked"). Whereas the second "Sie fegte die Bühne" means - as you wrote - "She swept the stage", which is more of a crafting act like "She painted the stage" ("Sie hat die Bühne gestrichen").

Answer 3

Ja, die Vermutung ist absolut richtig.

Sie ist über die Bühne gefegt.

means acting,

Sie hat die Bühne gefegt.

means to do the cleaning.