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I am writing a few paragraphs about a murderer who gave himself up because he was sick of hiding (from the police).

Schließlich erwischten die Polizisten den Mörder, da er überdrüssig des Versteckens war und stellte sich daher der Polizei.

It really doesn't sound right to me, but I don't know grammatically how to get across the idea of being sick of hiding oneself. I get the feeling Verstecken means to hide something rather than to hide yourself, and I also get the feeling a native would just phrase this in an entirely different way but I really can't think of how.

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Your sentence is almost ok, just the word order needs to be corrected slightly:

Schließlich erwischten die Polizisten den Mörder, da er des Versteckens überdrüssig war und sich der Polizei stellte.

The phrase „des Versteckens überdrüssig“ sounds quite sophisticated and maybe a little bit old-fashioned.

If you like a more profane solution that sounds more like the english term „to be sick of“, then I would use the phrase „etwas satt haben“ instead:

Schließlich erwischten die Polizisten den Mörder, weil er es satt hatte, sich ständig zu verstecken und sich der Polizei stellte

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  • Why does 'stellte' go to the end of the sentence? Is it because it is still part of the 'da' clause? And would 'daher' or 'demnach' not work in that final part? – Jacob Lee-Hart Dec 22 '19 at 18:32
  • I ommitted the „daher“ because it would be redundant: you already stated „da“ and for a good style you would not repeat that by using „daher“. Changing the word order would change the sentence to a main clause and remove the causal connection to the previous statement. Trying to reestablish that connection by repeating „daher“ would again be bad writing style – Torsten Link Dec 22 '19 at 18:43
  • Could you also please clarify why you swapped 'des Versteckens' and 'überdrüssig'? What word order rule applies here? – Jacob Lee-Hart Dec 22 '19 at 19:17
  • "stellte" is at the end because there are two subclauses following "weil" connected by "und" and verb-last applies to both of them. – RHa Dec 22 '19 at 19:28
  • Actually I can answer my own question about the word order of 'des Versteckens überdrüssig'. Adjectives that govern the genitive always follow their genitive noun, with the exception of 'bar'. – Jacob Lee-Hart Dec 22 '19 at 19:56
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The sentence is corrected already, a logical mistake becomes visible. It is possible to shorten the sentece:

Schließlich erwischten die Polizisten den Mörder, da er sich stellte.

"Erwischen" is the wrong word here. It meant the police identified and catched him. In this case it would be better fit to write:

Schließlich konnte die Polizisten den Mörder verhaften, da er des Versteckens überdrüssig war und sich der Polizei stellte.

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  • Can I clarify whether you are saying I should shorten the sentence, or if you are just pointing out the grammatical possibility? I think the information contained within that section you removed is important so it needs to be in there even if I have to give it its own sentence. – Jacob Lee-Hart Dec 22 '19 at 23:21
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    @JacobLee-Hart I shortened the sentence to highlight the reason of the verb at the end. Despite the reason I had, it was easier to read. An oportunity would be: "Schließlich konnten die Polizisten den Mörder verhaften. Er hatte keine Kraft mehr sich zu verstecken und sich schließlich gestellt." – Daniel Hoffmann Dec 22 '19 at 23:32

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