The demonstrative pronoun der, die, das

HA7

The demonstrative pronoun der, die, das is inflected as follows.

	singular			plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
nominative	der	die	das	die
genitive	dessen	deren	dessen	deren / derer
dative	dem	der	dem	denen
accusative	den	die	das	die

Most types of the demonstrative pronoun der, die, das are identical to the definite article. Different types exist only in the genitive and dative of the plural number.

The demonstrative pronoun der, die, das is used either as an article or as a pronoun in the place of a noun.

Examples
Die Frau meinst du?	Welche Frau meinst du? Die dort drüben.
Deren Kinder kennst du nicht?	Monikas Kinder? Die habe ich noch nicht kennen gelernt.
Der Verkäufer war es.	Vertraue dem nicht!
Den Mann sollst du fragen, nicht mich.	Den sollst du fragen, nicht mich.
article	pronoun

The demonstrative pronoun der, die, das can be used to refer to something already mentioned or to something that will be mentioned later.

When the demonstrative pronouns der, die, das refer to something already mentioned, they refer to a word.

Examples

Mein altes Auto? Das habe ich schon verkauft.

Wer ist der alte Herr? Den habe ich schon mal gesehen.

Neuter singular type of the demonstrative pronouns can also refer to a whole sentence.

Examples

Meine Frau verlassen? Das würde ich nie tun.

Nicht aufs Konzert gehen? Das kannst du vergessen.

When the demonstrative pronouns der, die, das refer to something that will be mentioned later, a relative clause, which further defines the demonstrative pronoun, follows.

Examples

Die, die mir helfen, sind meine besten Freunde.

Wir erwarten das, was er uns versprochen hat.

deren / derer

In the genitive case plural, types deren and derer are used. When the demonstrative pronoun refers to something already mentioned, the genitive form deren is used; when it refers to something that will be mentioned later, the genitive form derer is used.

Examples
die Erfahrungen derer, die im Ausland studiert haben	die Studenten und deren Erfahrugen
reference to something that will be mentioned later	reference to something already mentioned

Note 1

The demonstrative pronoun das is not used exclusively for neuter gender nouns in the singular number, when the verb sein sein is present.

Examples

Das sind meine Kinder.

Das ist seine Wohnung.

Ist das der neue Chef?

Note 2

The difference between the demonstartive pronoun der, die, das and dieser, diese, dieses / jener, jene, jenes lies in the fact that der, die, das does not give any information regarding the position of the person or thing to which it refers, while dieser, diese, dieses indicates proximity and jener, jene, jenes indicates distance.

Note 3

The difference between dessen / deren and the possessive article sein / ihr lies in the fact that the demonstrative pronoun dessen / deren cannot refer to the subject of the sentence.

Examples
Peter traf seine Schwester und deren Freunde.	deren and ihre refer to "die Schwester von Peter"		Peter traf seine Schwester und ihre Freunde.
Laura traf ihre Schwester und deren Freunde.	deren refers to "die Schwester von Laura"	ihre refers either to "Laura" or to "die Schwester von Laura"	Laura traf ihre Schwester und ihre Freunde.
demonstrative pronoun dessen / deren	differences		possessive article sein / ihr