Breakdown of Eine biologische Ernährung schadet den Tieren nicht.
ein
a, an (eine)
nicht
not
das Tier
the animal
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
Questions & Answers about Eine biologische Ernährung schadet den Tieren nicht.
Why is it den Tieren instead of the accusative die Tiere?
The verb schaden (to harm) is a dative verb. This means its object must always take the dative case rather than the more common accusative. Since Tiere is plural, we use the dative plural article den and ensure the noun ends in an extra -n, resulting in den Tieren.
Doesn't biologisch mean "biological"?
It can, but in the context of food, agriculture, or farming, biologisch (often just shortened to Bio) translates to "organic." Therefore, eine biologische Ernährung means "an organic diet."
Why is nicht placed at the very end of the sentence?
When you are negating the entire action of the sentence (the fact that it harms) rather than one specific word, nicht is typically pushed to the end of the clause.
How would this sentence change if I used da (since) to make it a dependent clause?
Because da is a subordinating conjunction, it sends the conjugated verb (schadet) to the very end of the clause. If you wanted to say "I buy this, since an organic diet does not harm animals," it would be: Ich kaufe das, da eine biologische Ernährung den Tieren nicht schadet.