не може да се поправи
“не може да се поправи” (ne može da se popravi) — it is beyond repair in Serbian. Phrase, level B1. An impersonal se instead of the passive: literally it cannot fix itself. In the report they write neisplativo za popravku, not worth fixing. In a live sentence: “Матична плоча је прегорела, не може да се поправи” — The motherboard burned, it is beyond repair. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Serbian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Serbian | не може да се поправи |
| Read in Latin letters | ne može da se popravi |
| Translation | it is beyond repair |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- не може да се поправиne može da se popraviit is beyond repair
Why it looks that way
An impersonal se instead of the passive: literally it cannot fix itself. In the report they write neisplativo za popravku, not worth fixing.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Матична плоча је прегорела, не може да се поправиMatična ploča je pregorela, ne može da se popraviThe motherboard burned, it is beyond repair
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “it is beyond repair” in Serbian?
«не може да се поправи», read “ne može da se popravi”. In a live sentence: “Матична плоча је прегорела, не може да се поправи” — The motherboard burned, it is beyond repair. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters н, е, м, о, ж, е, д, а, с, е, п, о.
How is “не може да се поправи” written in Latin letters?
ne može da se popravi. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
An impersonal se instead of the passive: literally it cannot fix itself. In the report they write neisplativo za popravku, not worth fixing. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.