Greifbaren

Greifbaren is a declined form of the German adjective greifbar, meaning tangible or graspable. The base greifbar is formed from greifen, “to grasp,” and the suffix -bar, indicating that something can be grasped or understood. In German, adjectives inflected after a definite article take weak endings, so greifbaren appears in several cases and numbers such as masculine singular accusative and plural forms.

Examples of usage include den greifbaren Gegenstand (the tangible object, masculine singular accusative) and mit den greifbaren Gegenständen (with the tangible objects, dative plural). In plural nominative or accusative positions you may also see die greifbaren Beweise or die greifbaren Gegenstände, where greifbaren is the plural form after the definite article.

Usage and nuance: greifbar is used for physical objects as well as for clearly verifiable or comprehensible concepts. It often contrasts with abstract, theoretical, or immaterial ideas, signaling immediacy or demonstrability. Common collocations include greifbare Beweise (tangible evidence), greifbare Ergebnisse (tangible results), and greifbare Fakten (concrete facts).

Etymology and notes: greifbar derives from greifen “to grasp” plus -bar, a productive suffix in German that yields adjectives meaning “able to be …” The form greifbaren is one of several inflected endings, reflecting case, number, and gender when the adjective is used with a definite article.

See also: greifbar, greifen, bar suffix. In usage, greifbar remains a standard term in everyday language as well as in scientific or political discourse when stressing concreteness or verifiability.