Breakdown of Das Gerät ist handlich, umso leichter bedient es sich.
sein
to be
es
it
sich
oneself / himself / herself / themselves (reflexive pronoun)
das Gerät
the machine / the equipment
Questions & Answers about Das Gerät ist handlich, umso leichter bedient es sich.
What is going on with bedient es sich? Why not use the regular passive wird es bedient?
This is the reflexive middle voice, a common alternative to the passive in German. Instead of saying 'it is operated easily' (wird es leicht bedient), German often uses a reflexive construction to say it 'operates itself easily' (bedient es sich leicht). This structure is very frequently used with adverbs like leicht, gut, or schwer to describe how an object behaves when you use it.
I usually see umso paired with je (the... the...). Why is it alone here?
While the paired structure je ..., umso ... is very common, umso can also be used on its own as a connecting adverb. In this sentence, it means 'all the more' or 'so much the'. The first clause gives a fact (Das Gerät ist handlich), and the second clause uses umso plus the comparative leichter to show an intensified result: 'all the more easily.'
Why does the verb bedient come before the subject es in the second part of the sentence?
This is because of the standard V2 (verb-second) rule. The comparative phrase umso leichter occupies the entire first position of the second clause. Therefore, the conjugated verb bedient must take the second position, pushing the subject es to the third position right behind it.
Does handlich mean exactly the same thing as the English word 'handy'?