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German Article/Prounoun Switching? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Scotty87 Newbie Australia Joined 3616 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: German | Message 1 of 9 29 January 2015 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have recently been having a bit of confusion in German with definite articles appearing where I would expect to
see a pronoun such as er/sie/es. For example, taken from Assimil German With Ease: Ja, und dann die Stromrechnung; die war auch ziemlich hoch, ... In the above example, I would expect that the bold "die" should rather be "sie". Can anyone explain this? Thanks. Edited by Scotty87 on 29 January 2015 at 12:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Glarus Girl Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4576 days ago 50 posts - 108 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swiss-German | Message 2 of 9 29 January 2015 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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The 'die' translates as 'which' or 'that' in this case. Edited by Glarus Girl on 29 January 2015 at 12:28pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 9 29 January 2015 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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IMHO, die is used because it's technically a relative clause, which could be rephrased as follows:
Hinzu kam noch die Stromrechung, die auch ziemlich hoch war ... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 4 of 9 29 January 2015 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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In this sentence, "die" serves as a demonstrative pronoun. In colloquial speech, "der/die/das" can be used as a demonstrative pronoun, which can also replace the personal pronoun.
Examples: Wer ist der Mann? - Den hab ich noch nie gesehen. Welches Buch möchten Sie? - Geben Sie mir bitte das (da)! Hast du Frau Meier gesehen? Wie die wieder aussieht! This use of "der/die/das" instead of "er/sie/es" can sound a little casual or even contemptuous, so don't overuse it. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chiara-sai Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3709 days ago 54 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 30 January 2015 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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As people said, it’s a relative pronoun and not an article. It is also slightly different from an article in its declension:
ᴍᴀsᴄᴜʟɪɴᴇ sɪɴɢᴜʟᴀʀ:
ғᴇᴍɪɴɪɴᴇ sɪɴɢᴜʟᴀʀ:
ɴᴇᴜᴛᴇʀ sɪɴɢᴜʟᴀʀ:
ᴘʟᴜʀᴀʟ:
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 30 January 2015 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
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The word order shows that the "die" in the original sentence isn't the homonymous relative pronoun (and definitely not an article either) - it is a demonstrative used emphatically, as stated by Josquin.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5561 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 7 of 9 30 January 2015 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
Whatever font you're using, the forum, or my browser, don't lke it. Edited by schoenewaelder on 30 January 2015 at 6:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Scotty87 Newbie Australia Joined 3616 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: German | Message 8 of 9 31 January 2015 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the replies everyone! It has been very helpful.
Seems so obvious now that it has been pointed out haha. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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