Breakdown of Entweder bist du dir der Situation bewusst, oder du handelst nicht moralisch.
sein
to be
du
you (informal singular)
nicht
not
dir
you / to you [informal singular, dative]
die Situation
the situation
handeln
to act
entweder ... oder
either ... or
bewusst
aware
moralisch
moral
Questions & Answers about Entweder bist du dir der Situation bewusst, oder du handelst nicht moralisch.
Why do we need dir here? Can't I just say "du bist der Situation bewusst"?
In German, the expression for "to be aware of something" is sich einer Sache bewusst sein. It strictly requires a reflexive pronoun in the dative case. Since the subject is du, the reflexive pronoun must be dir.
Is der Situation in the dative or genitive case here? They look identical for feminine nouns.
It is in the genitive case. The adjective bewusst is part of a special group of adjectives that dictate (or "govern") the genitive case for the object they refer to. Even though the feminine dative and genitive both use the article der, the strict rule for bewusst tells us this is definitely genitive.
Why does the verb bist come right after Entweder, but the verb handelst comes after du?
This highlights the difference in how these two conjunctions affect word order. In the first clause, Entweder occupies Position 1, pushing the verb bist into Position 2. In the second clause, oder is a coordinating conjunction that takes Position 0. It doesn't count toward the word order, allowing the subject du to take Position 1 and the verb handelst to take Position 2.
Why is the adjective bewusst pushed to the very end of the first clause?
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