Breakdown of Er rühmt sich des Betrugs, weshalb er in Gefahr ist.
sein
to be
er
he
in
in
die Gefahr
the danger
weshalb
which is why
der Betrug
the fraud
sich rühmen
to boast of
Questions & Answers about Er rühmt sich des Betrugs, weshalb er in Gefahr ist.
Why does the sentence use the Genitive des Betrugs instead of a preposition like über?
The verb sich rühmen (to boast) is one of the special verbs that strictly governs the Genitive case. It directly takes the Genitive object des Betrugs to express what the person is boasting about. No preposition like von or über is needed, as the Genitive case itself provides the meaning of boasting of something.
Wait, isn't sich also an object? How does this verb take two objects?
Yes, sich rühmen requires both an Accusative reflexive pronoun (sich) and a Genitive object (des Betrugs). You can think of the grammatical structure as literally boasting oneself of a thing.
Why is weshalb used here instead of deshalb?
The word weshalb means which is why and introduces a subordinate relative clause. This is why the verb ist is pushed to the very end of the sentence. If you used deshalb (therefore), it would act as an adverb in a new main clause, keeping the verb in the second position: ..., deshalb ist er in Gefahr.
Why is there no article before Gefahr?
Just like in English, the phrase in Gefahr sein (to be in danger) is a fixed expression that doesn't use an article. You would only add an article if you were describing a specific danger, such as in der Gefahr (in the danger).
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