Dawson Darling
German whose: "deren" oder "wessen" oder "dessen" oder "wes"? Working on comparatives and superlatives right now and want to make a flashcard with the sentence "Whose is bigger?" as a somewhat comical way to remember "größer". But in looking up translations for "whose" I get all those suggestions. Which do I pick for this example? deren wessen dessen wes And what rules do I follow for using each type of "whose" in the future? Offhand my guess is that it depends on gender or/and case. In checking my resources I can see that deren is genitive fem./plural and dessen is genitive masc./neut., but I can't readily find anything on wessen and wes. Help, and suggestions for other resources that might be more informative than what I have already?
22. Nov. 2018 01:25
Antworten · 2
2
Wessen is only used in questions. Wessen Auto ist das? (Whose car is that?) Dessen/deren are the Genitive form of the relative pronouns (der, die, das, die (plural)) and subsequently used in relative sentences. Der Mann, dessen Auto gestohlen wurde… The man, whose car was stolen…. Die Frau, deren Auto gestohlen wurde… The woman, whose car was stolen… Das Auto, dessen Besitzer es als gestohlen gemeldet hat… The car whose owner declared it as stolen… Die Autos, deren Besitzer sie als gestohlen gemeldet haben… The cars whose owners declared them as stolen… Wes is short for wessen but can also be translated as „derjenige dessen“, „diejenige deren“, „dasjenige dessen“, „diejenigen deren“. It’s kind of literary style. You won’t find it in modern language. But you may find it in idioms like Daran zeigt sich, wes Geistes Kind er ist. (This shows what type of person he is.) Wes Brot ich ess‘, des Lied ich sing. = Wessen Brot ich esse, dessen Lied singe ich. = Derjenige, dessen Brot ich esse, dessen Lied singe ich. (It means as much as „You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.“) You can find „des“ like used in the term above also in old chants like: https://www.lieder-archiv.de/als_ich_bei_meinen_schafen_wacht-notenblatt_200036.html „… des bin ich froh“ = „dessen bin ich froh“ = „darüber bin ich froh"
22. November 2018
1
Dieser Inhalt verstößt gegen unsere Community-Richtlinien.
22. November 2018
Haben Sie noch keine Antworten gefunden?
Geben Sie Ihre Fragen ein und lassen Sie sich von Muttersprachlern helfen!