Breakdown of Dieses Verhalten ist unserer Prinzipien nicht würdig.
sein
to be
nicht
not
unser
our
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
das Verhalten
the behavior
das Prinzip
the principle
würdig
worthy
Questions & Answers about Dieses Verhalten ist unserer Prinzipien nicht würdig.
Why is it unserer Prinzipien and not in the dative or accusative?
The adjective würdig (worthy) belongs to a special group of adjectives that require their object to be in the genitive case. The fixed structure is einer Sache würdig sein (to be worthy of a thing). Here, unserer Prinzipien is the genitive plural form of unsere Prinzipien.
Why does the negation nicht come right before würdig instead of earlier in the sentence?
When negating a predicate adjective like würdig, the nicht is placed directly before the adjective it negates. The verb ist and the adjective würdig form a frame, pushing the genitive object unserer Prinzipien into the middle before the negation.
Why does das Prinzip become Prinzipien here? Is that a special genitive ending?
No, Prinzipien is just the standard plural form of the neuter noun das Prinzip. Many nouns of Latin origin ending in -ip take the plural ending -ien. The genitive case in this sentence is shown entirely by the -er ending on the possessive article unserer.
In casual speech, could I replace the genitive here with von plus the dative?
While native speakers often replace the genitive with von plus the dative in everyday speech, doing so with würdig sounds quite unnatural. Adjectives that govern the genitive usually belong to a higher, more formal register of German, so they strongly resist being downgraded to a von construction.
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