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Ze hebben geen behoefte aan nutteloze afleiding.

Ze hebben geen behoefte aan nutteloze afleiding.
They have no need for useless distraction.
From Lesson 260:Neither nor (noch ... noch)·Dutch

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?
Geen is used to negate nouns, translating directly to "no" in "have no need". If you were negating a specific verb or adjective, you would use niet, but here you are negating the noun behoefte.
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"?
You would say: Ze hebben behoefte noch aan nutteloze afleiding, noch aan stress. Notice that you must drop the word geen because noch ... noch (neither ... nor) already makes the sentence negative on its own!

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