Breakdown of Wir dürfen das Verfallsdatum keineswegs überschreiten.
wir
we
dürfen
to be allowed to, may
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
keineswegs
by no means
das Verfallsdatum
the expiration date
überschreiten
to exceed
Questions & Answers about Wir dürfen das Verfallsdatum keineswegs überschreiten.
Why does dürfen translate to "must" in the English sentence?
When dürfen (to be allowed to) is combined with a negative word like keineswegs or nicht, it translates to "must not". English speakers often trip up here: to express that you are forbidden from doing something (must not), you use nicht dürfen. To say you simply do not have to do something, you use nicht müssen.
What is the difference between using keineswegs and just using nicht?
keineswegs is a strong, emphatic negation that means "by no means" or "not at all". It is more forceful and slightly more formal than nicht, emphasizing that exceeding the expiration date is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances.
Is the verb überschreiten separable or inseparable?
It is inseparable here. While über- can sometimes be a separable prefix in literal contexts (like crossing over a physical object), it is usually inseparable when used in a figurative sense, such as "exceeding" a limit or a date. Because it is inseparable, its past participle is überschritten without an extra -ge-.
Why is there an s in the middle of Verfallsdatum?
That is a connecting s (often called a Fugen-s). It acts as linguistic glue to smoothly join the two separate nouns der Verfall (decay or expiration) and das Datum (date) into a single compound word.
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