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3.2: Der- words

  • Page ID
    79357
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    These are the words that function like the definite article in that they share the same endings with articles. The stems of these words are:

    dies- this
    jen- that
    jed- every / each
    manch- (many a) (plural = some, many)
    solch- such, so, those, etc. Consult your diectionary
    welch- which / waht
    all- all

    Using dies– as our example der-word, our chart looks as follows (compare with the chart of definite articles in Unit 2):

    MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL
    NOMINATIVE dieser diese dieses diese
    ACCUSATIVE diesen diese dieses diese
    DATIVE diesem dieser diesem diesen
    (Noun + n)
    GENITIVE dieses
    (Noun + s/es)
    dieser dieses
    (Noun + s/es)
    dieser

    Points to remember:

    1. Der– words share the same endings as the definite article.
    2. All– will only appear in plural usages.
    3. Dies– and jen– when used alone can mean “the latter” and “the former” respectively. Example:

    Die Eltern meiner Frau heißen Johann und Margarete. Diese ist 62 Jahre alt, jener 65 Jahre alt.
    The parents of my wife are named Johann and Margarete. The latter is 62 years old, the former 65 years old.

    Note that your cue for this special meaning is that diese and jener in the second sentence do not "belong to" – or modify – a noun. They are standing alone. Normally you expect a noun (possibly with that noun’s other modifiers) to follow any der-word.


    This page titled 3.2: Der- words is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Howard Martin revised by Alan Ng.

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