0

I am wondering how to correctly form a genitive construction in German while translating a sentence from English to German.

For example:

English:

It is broken because of you.

German:

Es ist kaputt wegen (?)

I do not know what pronoun to put here. I am aware that one can use the dative in this situation, but I need to know the correct pronoun in the genitive for this sentence.

Use of wegen as a genitive preposition is required.

Improve this question
2

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

"correct" (most widely used) solution here is:

Es ist kaputt wegen *dir*.(which is dative)
Es ist *deinetwegen* kaputt.(which uses an adverb)

correct genitive were: deiner

Es ist kaputt wegen *deiner*

"wegen deiner" mostly gets replaced by the adverb "deinetwegen" in spoken language, if there is not some object deiner can refer to.

If some object is given native speakers mostly use:

Es ist kaputt wegen *deines Fehlers*.  
It is broken because of your error.(or whateverm might have happened)

You ran into a currently changing construction there.
citing from the linked question: (bolding by me)

Sie ["authentic" pronouns like "wegen"] kön­nen nur mit dem Dativ oder dem Akku­sa­tiv ste­hen und grundsätzlich nicht mit dem Geni­tiv.

and again citing from linked question:

Anzahl von Präpositionen, die mit Genetiv verwendet werden. Darunter auch wegen.

Your example is awkwardly chosen. As visible in the canoo.net article there in fact are constructions with genitive, but almost noone uses the really correct way in speech, because it seemingly sounds "awkward"...

Improve this answer
2
  • Sorry, but this answer is just wrong. Deinetwegen < von deinetwegen < von deinen wegen (nhd. von deiner Seite), which is dative (von only goes with dative).
    – Cornelius Brand
    Commented Oct 13, 2019 at 9:54
  • 1
    It may be interesting to know that the phrase "wegen mir" is (at least in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland) means something like "fine with me, I don't really care". Similar expressions are "meinetwegen" or "von mir aus". A conversation could go like this: "Können wir auf dem Weg beim Bäcker anhalten?" - "Wegen mir." You can imagine a short shrug with the answer. So, if you put the example in the question as "Es ist kaputt wegen mir", it doesn't necessarily come across as that apologetic and remorseful ;)
    – Henning Kockerbeck
    Commented Oct 13, 2019 at 11:18

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.