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Het onrecht verdient geen respect.

Het onrecht verdient geen respect.
The injustice deserves no respect.
From Lesson 336:Emphasizing a point (Wat ...)·Dutch

Breakdown of Het onrecht verdient geen respect.

het onrecht
the injustice
het respect
the respect

Questions & Answers about Het onrecht verdient geen respect.

How can we change this sentence into a pseudo-cleft sentence to put heavy emphasis on geen respect?
You can rewrite it using a wat (what) clause: Wat het onrecht verdient, is geen respect. (What the injustice deserves, is no respect). This structure matches your current lesson and delays the most important information until the end of the sentence for dramatic effect.
Does the on- in onrecht work exactly like the "in-" in English "injustice"?
Yes, it is a negative prefix. The base word het recht means justice or the law. Adding on- makes it the exact opposite: het onrecht means injustice or a wrong.
Even at B2, choosing between geen and niet can sometimes cause hesitation. Why must we use geen here?
You use geen because respect is an uncountable, indefinite noun in this sentence (there is no het or een before it). You can think of geen as the equivalent of "no" or "not any" before a noun. You are negating the noun respect, not the action of the verb verdient.
Does verdienen always mean "to deserve"?
No, the verb verdienen means both "to deserve" and "to earn" (like a salary). In this context, it clearly means "to deserve," but you will often see it used in financial contexts as well.

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