Breakdown of Dieser Reiseführer ist vertrauenswürdig, aber jene Agentur ist fragwürdig.
sein
to be
aber
but
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
die Agentur
the agency
der Reiseführer
the travel guide
jener
that (m)
vertrauenswürdig
trustworthy
fragwürdig
questionable
Questions & Answers about Dieser Reiseführer ist vertrauenswürdig, aber jene Agentur ist fragwürdig.
How is vertrauenswürdig formed, and what does the s in the middle do?
It is made by combining the noun das Vertrauen (trust) and the suffix -würdig (worthy). The s in the middle is a linking sound called a Fugen-s, which is commonly used in German to join nouns together or to attach a suffix smoothly.
Could I say vertrauenswert instead of vertrauenswürdig?
No, vertrauenswürdig is the fixed, standard term. As a general rule, -würdig is typically used with abstract, moral, or personal qualities (worthy of trust, worthy of questioning), while -wert is attached to verbs to mean worth doing (like sehenswert for worth seeing or lesenswert for worth reading).
Why doesn't fragwürdig have a linking s like vertrauenswürdig does?
The word fragwürdig is built from the feminine noun die Frage (question). Feminine nouns usually do not take a linking s when forming compound words or adding suffixes. Instead, the final e is simply dropped to connect the root to -würdig.
I don't see jene used very often. Can I just use die here?
Jene (that) is the direct counterpart to dieser (this). While everyday spoken German often uses a stressed definite article with a location word (like die Agentur da) to mean that agency, jene is the most precise way to create a strong, elegant contrast between two specific things in written German.
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