Wir ziehen den Bremsbelag fest.

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Breakdown of Wir ziehen den Bremsbelag fest.

• der Bremsbelag: the brake pad
• festziehen: to tighten firmly

Questions & Answers about Wir ziehen den Bremsbelag fest.

Why is fest at the end of the sentence?

Because festziehen is a separable verb.

The full verb is festziehen, but in a normal main clause, German splits it:

• Wir ziehen den Bremsbelag fest.

So:

• ziehen = the conjugated part, which goes in the usual verb position
• fest = the separable prefix, which moves to the end

This is very common in German:

• Ich mache die Tür auf. = I open the door.
• Wir ziehen den Bremsbelag fest. = We tighten the brake pad.

In the infinitive, it stays together:

• Wir müssen den Bremsbelag festziehen.

What exactly is the verb here: ziehen or festziehen?

The actual verb is festziehen.

On its own, ziehen usually means to pull or to draw.
But festziehen has a more specific meaning: to tighten.

So in this sentence, you should not translate it word-for-word as we pull the brake pad firm. Instead, treat festziehen as one vocabulary item.

Why is it den Bremsbelag and not der Bremsbelag?