Interrogative Pronouns in German Grammar
German Question Words – wer/was/wem/wen/wessen
Interrogative pronouns In German (Interrogativpronomen) are a type of question words. The interrogative pronouns in German grammar are wer, was, wem, wen, and wessen.
What is an interrogative pronoun?
Interrogative pronouns In German (Interrogativpronomen) are a type of question words. The interrogative pronouns in German grammar are wer, was, wem, wen, and wessen.
German Question Words – wer/was/wem/wen/wessen
The interrogative pronouns wer, was, wem, wen and wessen allow us ask questions about unknown entities. Choosing which question word depends on the case and whether we are asking about a person or a thing:
- We use wer to ask after people in the nominative case (= who)
Example: Wer hat das gesagt?
- We use wen to ask after people in the accusative case (= who)
Example: Wen habt ihr angerufen?
- We use wem to ask after people in the dative case (= who/whom)
Example: Wem hast du das Buch gegeben.
- We use wessen to ask after people in the genitive case (= whose)
Example: Wessen Tasche ist das?
- We use was to ask after things in all of the cases (= what)
Example: Was ist das? Was hast du gegessen?
Welcher vs. was für ein
Was für ein allows us to ask about type, similar to the English phrase what kind of …?
The interrogative pronoun welcher is similar to which? or which one? in English. It allows us to ask about a specific element in a group.
Both welcher and the article ein must be declined and agree with the noun they are referring to in terms of gender and number
- Examples: —Manuela hat einen Hund.
- —Was für einen (Hund hat sie)?
- —Einen Chihuahua.
- —Welcher (Hund) gehört Manuela, der große oder der kleine?
- —Der kleine.
How to decline welcher and was für ein
The table below shows how we decline the question words welcher and was für ein.
*The letters in brackets are only used when the question word replaces a noun instead of modifying it.
Example: Was für ein Auto fährst du? *was für ein Auto = what kind of car
Was für eins fährst du?- *was für eins = what kind.
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