3.4 Demonstratives

The definite article is used in colloquial speech before the names of people:

„Ich finde den Udo total unmöglich.“ „Ist die Frau Berlinger da?“ “I find Udo totally impossible.” “Is Frau Berlinger there?”

The definite article is often used with parts of the body and articles of clothing, where

English uses a possessive:

Sie machte die Augen zu. Hast du dir die Zähne geputzt? Er steckte die Hand in die Tasche. She closed her eyes. Have you cleaned your teeth? He put his hand in his pocket.

A definite article is used in some set prepositional phrases where the English equivalent has no article:

Wir gingen in die Schule. Er trank den Kaffee im Stehen. Wir fahren mit dem Bus. We went to school. He drank his coffee standing up. We’re going by bus.

No article is used in the PREDICATECOMPLEMENT of sein, werden or bleiben with nouns denoting professions, nationality or classes of people:

Er ist Arzt/Bäcker/Installateur. Mein Schwager ist Deutscher. Anne ist doch Engländerin,oder? Helmut blieb Junggeselle. Er wurde Sozialdemokrat. He is a doctor/baker/plumber. My brother-in-law is (a) German. Anne is an Englishwoman, isn’t she? Helmut remained a bachelor. He became a Social Democrat.

NB If the noun is preceded by an adjective, the indefinite article is used, e.g. Er ist ein guter Arzt.

No article or determiner need be used in the plural where English uses ‘some’ or ‘any’:

Ich habe Äpfel gekauft. Brauchen Sie Marken? I bought some apples. Do you need any stamps?

Demonstratives are words used to point to something or someone, like English ‘this’ and ‘that’. This section deals with demonstrative DETERMINERS. See 3.9 for demonstrative PRONOUNS.

Der/die/das

This is the most frequent demonstrative in spoken German. It has the same written forms as the definite article (see 3.1), but it is typically pronounced with heavy stress and a full vowel while pointing at the object. It corresponds to English ‘this’ or ‘that’. Compare:

Ich möchte ein Stück von der Wurst. I’d like a piece of the sausage. Ich möchte ein Stück von der Wurst. I’d like a piece of this/that sausage.

Dieser

Dieser generally corresponds to English ‘this’. It is especially common in written German (where der would be ambiguous), but it is used in speech, too. It has different forms to show the GENDER, NUMBER and CASE of the noun it is used with.

These endings are also used for a large number of other determiners:

In practice, dieser is often used where we would say ‘that’ in English if it is not necessary to make a clear distinction between something close by and something further away:

masculine feminine neuter plural

nominative dieser diese dieses diese accusative diesen diese dieses diese genitive dieses dieser dieses dieser dative diesem dieser diesem diesen

alle all jener that viele much, many beide both mancher some, many welcher which einige some mehrere several wenige few jeder each, every sämtliche all

Ich habe diese Erklärung nicht verstanden. I didn’t understand this/that explanation. Diese Schokolade schmeckt aber gut! This/that chocolate really does taste good!

Other demonstratives

Jener (that) is used mainly in formal written German. It has the same endings as dieser.

Seit jenen Tagen hatte Herr Arndt Mr Arndt had not seen him since those days. ihn nicht mehr gesehen.