Breakdown of Der Zopf wurde abgeschnitten, und ich hätte weinen können.
ich
I
und
and
haben
to have
können
can / to be able to
weinen
to cry
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
der Zopf
the braid
abschneiden
to cut off
Questions & Answers about Der Zopf wurde abgeschnitten, und ich hätte weinen können.
Why do we use weinen können instead of a past participle like gekonnt?
This is the famous double infinitive rule for modal verbs! When you put a modal verb like können into a perfect tense (like this past 'could have' form), you don't use its past participle. Instead, you use the infinitive of the main verb (weinen) immediately followed by the infinitive of the modal verb (können). So it is always hätte + infinitive + modal infinitive.
How does the word order work with hätte and the double infinitive here?
The word und connects two main clauses. In the second clause, the subject is ich, and the conjugated helping verb hätte takes the standard second position. The heavy lifting--the double infinitive weinen können--gets pushed all the way to the end of the clause, just like a standard past participle would.
Is wurde abgeschnitten an example of the passive voice?
Exactly! It is the simple past (Präteritum) passive. It is formed using wurde (the past tense of the helping verb werden) plus the past participle of the main verb (abgeschnitten). The sentence focuses on the fact that the braid was cut, rather than who did the cutting.
Since abschneiden (to cut off) is a separable verb, why is it written as one connected word in abgeschnitten?
Because it is in its past participle form. When forming the past participle of a separable verb, the required -ge- is sandwiched right between the separable prefix (ab-) and the verb stem (schnitten). The result is always written together as a single word.
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