Passive replacement with -bar/-lich adjectives
Passiversatz mit -bar/-lich-Adjektiven
Adjectives in -bar/-lich express 'can be V-ed': 'lösbar' = can be solved, 'unverständlich' = cannot be understood.
Structure
Verbstamm + -bar / -lich (als Adjektiv)
verb stem + -bar / -lich (as an adjective)
Details
- Part of Speech
- Adjective
- Register
- Standard
Explanation
Adjectives ending in -bar (and some in -lich) express a passive possibility: that something can be V-ed.
- lösen → lösbar - solvable, can be solved
- trinken → trinkbar - drinkable
- verstehen → verständlich - understandable
- essen → essbar - edible
So Das ist machbar means Das kann gemacht werden (that can be done).
Example: Diese Aufgabe ist durchaus lösbar und nicht zu schwer. - This task is quite solvable and not too difficult.
Example: Das Wasser ist nicht trinkbar. - The water is not drinkable.
The suffix -bar is highly productive and attaches freely to stems; -lich forms are more lexicalized and unpredictable (verständlich exists, but not machlich). usually uses the prefix un-: unlösbar, unverständlich, untrinkbar.
Common mistake: Inventing -lich forms by analogy. Only -bar is freely productive; learn the -lich adjectives as fixed vocabulary.
About Passive replacement with -bar/-lich adjectives
Adjectives in -bar/-lich express 'can be V-ed': 'lösbar' = can be solved, 'unverständlich' = cannot be understood.
Adjectives formed with '-bar' (and some with '-lich') replace a passive of possibility. 'Das ist machbar' means 'Das kann gemacht werden'. '-bar' attaches freely to stems; '-lich' forms are more fixed.
auf '-bar' und '-lich' drücken eine passivische Möglichkeit aus: 'machbar' = kann gemacht werden.
Caution
-bar is productive (essbar, lesbar); -lich is lexicalized and less predictable (verständlich, but not *machlich).