In determiners 101 we learned how determiners are small words which come before nouns and give additional information about them. We also looked at the most important determiners – the definite and indefinite articles, which are der (the definite article) and ein (the indefinite article).
German features a range of determiners which follow the pattern of either the definite article der or the indefinite article ein. Here we will look at the der words, which follow the same pattern as the definite articles.
list of der-words
| Der-word | Approximate Meaning |
|---|---|
| der | the |
| dieser | this |
| jener | that (not used in casual speech) |
| jeder | each/every |
| mancher | some / “many a” / “some people” |
| solcher | such, “like that” |
| welcher | which |
| alle | all (this one is nearly always plural) |
example sentences
| Der Hund ist lieb. | The dog is friendly. |
| Diese Stadt liegt an der Küste. | This city is by the coast. |
| Diese Tasche gefällt mir besser als jene. | I prefer this bag to that one. |
| Jeder Mensch hat seine Schwächen. | Every person has their weaknesses. |
| Manche werden es schon kennen. | Some people will be familiar with it already. |
| Mit solchen Leuten will ich nichts zu tun haben. | I don’t want anything to do with people like that. |
| Welches Gericht würden Sie uns empfehlen? | Which dish would you recommend us? |
| Alle anderen schlafen. | All the others are sleeping. |
number and gender of der-words
Der-words have to match the noun they precede in terms of number and gender. The pattern is the same as for the definite article der.
| nominative | accusative | dative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine (wolf) | dieser Wolf | diesen Wolf | diesem Wolf | dieses Wolfes |
| feminine (mouse | diese Maus | diese Maus | dieser Maus | dieser Maus |
| neuter (squirrel) | dieses Schwein | dieses Schwein | diesem Schwein | dieses Schweines |
| plural (birds) | diese Vögel | diese Vögel | diesen Vögeln | dieser Vögel |