Word
Der Experte entwickelt den Chip, damit er unsichtbar bleibt.
Meaning
The expert develops the chip so that it remains invisible.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Experte entwickelt den Chip, damit er unsichtbar bleibt.
er
he
bleiben
to stay
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
entwickeln
to develop
Questions & Answers about Der Experte entwickelt den Chip, damit er unsichtbar bleibt.
Why do we use damit here instead of um ... zu?
Both express a purpose ("in order to" or "so that"). However, you can only use um ... zu when the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence. Here, the subjects are different: the expert (der Experte) develops the chip, but the chip (er) is the thing that remains invisible. Because the subjects are different, we have to use damit.
Why does the sentence use er to mean "it"?
Pronouns in German have to match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Because the word for chip is masculine (der Chip), we must use the masculine pronoun er to refer back to it, even though in English we just translate it as "it".
Why is the verb bleibt at the very end of the sentence?
The word damit is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent part of the sentence) and always kicks the conjugated verb—in this case, bleibt—to the very end of that clause.
How does the word unsichtbar break down?
It is built from three parts that might look familiar. The core is related to die Sicht (sight or view). The suffix -bar is like the English "-able", making sichtbar (visible). Finally, the prefix un- negates it, just like in English, giving us unsichtbar (invisible).