Formal Authority: "seitens" and "vonseiten"
In official documents, like a formal letter from a strict boarding school, you will often encounter the prepositions seitens and vonseiten. Both translate to "on the part of."
They always take the Genitive case. As a reminder, masculine and neuter nouns use the article des (plus an -s or -es ending), while feminine and plural nouns use the article der.
Notice how the neuter noun das Internat becomes des Internats after seitens:
| On the part of the boarding school, we expect appropriate behavior. | Seitens des Internats erwarten wir angemessenes Benehmen. |
These prepositions can appear at the beginning or later in the sentence. Here is an example with a plural noun (die Schüler becomes der Schüler):
| The school administration expects appropriate behavior on the part of the students. | Die Schulleitung erwartet angemessenes Benehmen seitens der Schüler. |
The preposition vonseiten works exactly the same way. Here it is used with the feminine noun die Schulleitung (which becomes der Schulleitung):
| On the part of the school administration, no misconduct is tolerated. | Vonseiten der Schulleitung wird kein Fehlverhalten geduldet. |
| We demand complete cooperation on the part of the parents. | Wir fordern vollständige Kooperation vonseiten der Eltern. |
These prepositions are highly formal, making them perfect for communicating strict official policies.
| Should cooperation be missing, sanctions will follow on the part of the school administration. | Sollte die Kooperation fehlen, folgen Sanktionen vonseiten der Schulleitung. |