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De onbekenden zijn beschermd tegen het gevaar.

De onbekenden zijn beschermd tegen het gevaar.
The strangers are protected against the danger.
From Lesson 428:Independent plurals for people (-n)·Dutch

Questions & Answers about De onbekenden zijn beschermd tegen het gevaar.

Why does onbekenden get an -n at the end here?
The word onbekend is an adjective meaning unknown. When an adjective is used independently as a noun to refer to people in the plural, it gets an -n ending. If we were talking about unknown things, it would just be de onbekende, but because these are human strangers, it becomes de onbekenden.
Why is it beschermd with a -d rather than a -t?
The word beschermd is a past participle used here to mean protected. To form the past participle of beschermen, we look at the verb stem bescherm. Since the final letter m is not in the 't kofschip list of voiceless consonants, the participle gets a -d instead of a -t.
Why does the sentence use zijn instead of worden for the passive voice?
This sentence describes a result or a state rather than an ongoing action. If the action of protecting were happening right now (the strangers are being protected), Dutch would use worden beschermd. Because they are already in a safe, protected state, Dutch uses zijn beschermd.
Can I use van instead of tegen to mean protected from the danger?
No, Dutch relies on the fixed preposition tegen (against) when using the verb beschermen. Even though English speakers naturally want to say protected from, you must always protect someone tegen something in Dutch.

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