Breakdown of Die Hinweise wären nicht ignoriert, sondern kombiniert worden.
sein
to be
nicht
not
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
sondern
but rather
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
ignorieren
to ignore
der Hinweis
the clue (hint, information)
kombinieren
to combine
Questions & Answers about Die Hinweise wären nicht ignoriert, sondern kombiniert worden.
Why do we use wären instead of hätten here to mean "would have"?
In German, the passive voice is built with werden (to be/become). In perfect and past tenses, werden requires sein (to be) as its helping verb, never haben. Therefore, to say "would have been [verb]ed" in the Subjunctive II past passive, you always use a form of wäre + the past participle + worden. Since Die Hinweise is plural, we use wären.
Why does the sentence use worden instead of geworden?
When werden is used as a helping verb to form the passive voice, its past participle drops the "ge-" and becomes simply worden. You only use geworden when werden is the main verb of the sentence meaning "to become" (for example: Das Wetter wäre besser geworden - The weather would have become better).
Does the word worden at the end apply to both ignoriert and kombiniert?
Yes! Because both verbs belong to the exact same passive structure, you can drop the repeated grammar words. If you wrote it out fully, it would be: Die Hinweise wären nicht ignoriert worden, sondern sie wären kombiniert worden. Sharing wären and worden across both verbs makes the sentence flow much better.
Why is sondern used here for "but" instead of aber?
Sondern is specifically used to contradict a negative statement and offer the correct alternative in its place ("not this, but rather that"). Because the first half of the sentence uses nicht (not ignored), and the second half provides the true alternative (combined), you must use sondern. If you just wanted to add a contrasting but non-contradictory thought, you would use aber.
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