Breakdown of Ohne Disziplin ist es schwierig, sich die Fähigkeit selber beizubringen.
sein
to be
es
it
ohne
without
sich
oneself / himself / herself / themselves (reflexive pronoun)
zu
to (infinitive marker)
schwierig
difficult
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
beibringen
to teach
selber
oneself
die Disziplin
the discipline
die Fähigkeit
the skill
Questions & Answers about Ohne Disziplin ist es schwierig, sich die Fähigkeit selber beizubringen.
What is the difference between selbst and selber in this sentence?
In this context, there is no difference in meaning! Both are emphatic words used to stress that someone does something personally (teaching it to yourself). selber is just the more colloquial or spoken equivalent of the standard word selbst. You could easily swap it for selbst here without changing the grammar or meaning.
Who exactly does the reflexive pronoun sich refer to here since there is no specific person mentioned?
It refers generally to 'oneself' or 'yourself'. Because the main clause uses the impersonal es ist schwierig (it is difficult), the infinitive phrase doesn't have a specific person acting as the subject. In German, the reflexive pronoun defaults to the third-person sich (oneself) for general statements like this.
What case is the reflexive pronoun sich in here?
It is in the dative case. The verb beibringen (to teach) takes two objects: what is being taught is the accusative direct object (die Fähigkeit), and the person receiving the teaching is the dative indirect object. Since you are teaching the skill to yourself, the reflexive pronoun sich acts as that dative object.
Why is the word zu stuck in the middle of beizubringen?
The verb beibringen is a separable verb, with the prefix bei-. When you form a zu-infinitive (like saying 'to teach'), the zu gets sandwiched between the separable prefix and the main verb root, and the whole thing is written as one single word: bei + zu + bringen.
Why does the sentence say ist es instead of es ist?
This is the classic German Verb-Second rule in action. Because the prepositional phrase Ohne Disziplin takes up the first position in the sentence, the verb ist must stay in the second position. That forces the subject es to move into the third spot.
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