pronouns

The noun phrase: determiners and pronouns

3

A NOUNPHRASE may simply consist of one noun on its own, e.g. Rache ist süß, or of a PRONOUN, which ‘stands for’ a noun, e.g. Sie ist süß. As in English, it is usual for a noun to be preceded by a DETERMINER such as the following:

an ARTICLE – der (the) or ein (a) a DEMONSTRATIVE such as dieser (this) a POSSESSIVE such as mein (my) or dein (your) an INTERROGATIVE such as welcher (which) or wie viele (how many).

Between the determiner and the noun you may find one or more ADJECTIVES (see chapter 4) or even – unlike English – long adjectival phrases that give additional information about the noun:

Determiners play an important part in indicating the role of the noun phrase in the sentence. To do this they have endings that indicate GENDER, NUMBER and CASE. Similarly, the form of pronouns changes depending on their grammatical role. In order to understand German well and produce comprehensible sentences, you need to learn these forms and pay attention to the endings in their context.

This chapter gives you details about the following: definite and indefinite ARTICLES (3.1–3.3)

dieser tolle neue Film this brilliant new film Der 1867 von dem schwedischen The explosive invented in 1867 by the Chemiker Alfred Nobel erfundene Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel and und kurz darauf für die Erbauung des usedshortly afterwards for the

Gotthard-Tunnels benutzte construction of the Gotthard Tunnel is Sprengstoff heißt Dynamit. called dynamite.

other DETERMINERS (3.4–3.6) PRONOUNS, notably PERSONALPRONOUNS and REFLEXIVEPRONOUNS (3.7–3.9).