Word
Ze hebben geen behoefte aan nutteloze afleiding.
Meaning
They have no need for useless distraction.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ze hebben geen behoefte aan nutteloze afleiding.
hebben
to have
geen
no / not any
aan
on / at (attached to, edge)
ze
they; she (unstressed form of zij) / them (object)
Questions & Answers about Ze hebben geen behoefte aan nutteloze afleiding.
Why is the preposition aan used here instead of voor for the English "for"?
In Dutch, the fixed expression for "to have a need for" is behoefte hebben aan. Prepositions rarely translate word-for-word between English and Dutch, so it is best to memorize behoefte aan as a combined phrase.
Why do we use geen here to make the sentence negative?
Why does the adjective nutteloos (useless) change to nutteloze here?
Because afleiding is a de-word (almost all nouns ending in -ing are), the adjective before it gets an -e ending. When adding the -e, Dutch spelling rules apply: the double vowel oo becomes a single o in an open syllable, and the s changes to a z.
If this lesson is about noch ... noch, how would I use it here to say they need "neither useless distraction nor stress"?