Word
Die Jacke ist zwar kaputt, aber reparierbar und wieder tragbar.
Meaning
The jacket is indeed broken, but repairable and wearable again.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die Jacke ist zwar kaputt, aber reparierbar und wieder tragbar.
sein
to be
und
and
aber
but
die Jacke
the jacket
Questions & Answers about Die Jacke ist zwar kaputt, aber reparierbar und wieder tragbar.
How does the suffix -bar work in reparierbar and tragbar?
The suffix -bar is added to a verb stem to show that something can be done to the subject (a passive possibility). It works exactly like the English suffix "-able". reparierbar comes from reparieren (to repair) and means "repairable", while tragbar comes from tragen (to wear) and means "wearable".
Why is zwar used here, and does it always need aber?
zwar means "admittedly" or "it is true that". It is very often paired with aber (but) to create a contrast, similar to saying "The jacket is indeed broken, but...". You can use zwar on its own, but the zwar ... aber pair is a very common fixed structure in German.
The verb tragen changes its vowel for "he/she/it wears" (trägt). Does this vowel change affect words ending in -bar?
No, adjectives ending in -bar are built using the basic infinitive stem of the verb. Even though tragen has a vowel change in the present tense, you just take the basic stem trag- and add -bar to get tragbar. You do not add an umlaut here.
Why isn't the verb repeated after aber?
Because both parts of the sentence share the same subject (Die Jacke) and the same verb (ist), you do not need to repeat them. You could say "...aber sie ist reparierbar", but dropping the repeated words sounds much more natural and concise, just like in English.