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На вашем счету недостаточно денег, чтобы продолжить пользование услугами сети интернет.

The reason for using the genitive "денег" seems straightforward enough, but in the following instance, the use of the genitive "этого" instead of "это" has me puzzled.

Детская смертность снизилась вдвое, но этого недостаточно.

I assume this is not strictly a negative construction, despite the prefix "не-", and it does not fit the "not enough of ..." interpretation, either.

3 Answers 3

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I assume this is not strictly a negative construction, despite the prefix "не-", and it does not fit the "not enough of ..." interpretation, either.

Your assumption is not correct. It is a negative construction and it does fit the "not enough of ..." interpretation - "not enough of this (decreasing of сhild mortality) for whatever it's being spoken about".

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  • Hi. How do you explain this construction "Этого мало?"? Commented Mar 26, 2018 at 23:34
  • What's the difficulty?
    – Abakan
    Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 5:04
  • How should I literally interpret "Этого мало?": "(impersonally) It is insufficient/few of/with this?"? Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 22:13
  • 1
    Yes. Word.by-word it would be "(it is) little of this". But the sense is "it's not sufficient of this".
    – Abakan
    Commented Mar 28, 2018 at 8:08
  • Still having perverse fun in casting trolling votes, I see. If you could find anything else to do in your life. Some people never change. Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 8:16
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Both your examples use the genitive case for the same reason: (не)достаточно takes a compliment in the genitive case:

  • "Достаточно одной таблетки." (Google it)
  • Этого недостаточно, нужно больше!
  • Достаточно примеров?
1

"Но этого недостаточно" is 100% similar to the English "but it's not enough" and differs from just "недостаточно" like it's English counterpart differs from just "not enough".

One can say in English: "There's no enough money in the world to make me get this job", or one can say "I have like what, 200 bucks on me, but it's not enough".

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