Breakdown of Einerseits fehlt uns die Zeit, andererseits fehlt das Geld.
das Geld
the money
die Zeit
the time
fehlen
to be missing
einerseits ... andererseits
on the one hand ... on the other
Questions & Answers about Einerseits fehlt uns die Zeit, andererseits fehlt das Geld.
Why does the verb fehlt come right after Einerseits and andererseits?
Both Einerseits and andererseits act as adverbs taking up the first position in their respective clauses. Since German requires the main verb to be in the second position, the verb fehlt must come immediately after them. This causes subject-verb inversion, pushing the subjects (die Zeit and das Geld) after the verb.
I want to say "we lack", so why does the sentence use uns instead of wir?
The German verb fehlen works backward compared to the English verb "to lack". In German, the thing that is missing is the subject (in this case, die Zeit and das Geld), and the person who is missing it takes the dative case (uns). Literally, it translates to "the time is missing to us".
Why isn't uns repeated in the second half of the sentence?
You could certainly say andererseits fehlt uns das Geld, but it is not strictly necessary. Because the person lacking the money is still the same as in the first clause, you can leave out the repeated pronoun uns to make the sentence flow more naturally.
Do I always need a comma between the two halves of an einerseits ... andererseits sentence?
Yes. Because these two words connect two separate clauses, German punctuation rules require a comma to separate them, even if the clauses are very short.
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