Breakdown of Við höfnum tillögunni af því að hún er samfélaginu skaðleg.
vera
to be
hún
she
við
we
af því að
because
samfélagið
the society
hafna
to reject
tillagan
the proposal
skaðlegur
harmful
Questions & Answers about Við höfnum tillögunni af því að hún er samfélaginu skaðleg.
Why is samfélaginu in the dative case, and why does it come before the adjective skaðleg?
The adjective skaðleg (harmful) is one of those adjectives that requires the noun it interacts with to take the dative case. In Icelandic, it is very common for the dative noun to come directly before the adjective that governs it, so it literally reads as "the society harmful" (samfélaginu skaðleg).
Why is the word for "the proposal" (tillögunni) in the dative case here?
The verb hafna (to reject or turn down) requires its object to be in the dative case. The base noun is the feminine tillaga. In the dative, it becomes tillögu, and when you add the definite suffix ("the") to the end, it becomes tillögunni.
Why does the sentence use hún ("she") when the English translation says "it"?
Since samfélaginu is a neuter noun, why isn't the adjective in the neuter form (skaðlegt)?
The adjective skaðleg is describing the proposal (hún), not the society. Because hún is feminine, nominative, and singular, the adjective must match those exact features, which gives us skaðleg.
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