After the definite article itself, the most useful der-words are dieser ("this"), jener ("that"), jeder ("each / every"), and welcher ("which"). They share one liberating property: they all take the exact same endings as der / die / das. Learn the article endings once and these four come free. This page drills those endings and then warns you about two traps — jeder is singular-only, and jener is far more formal than English "that," which trips up nearly every learner.
They all take der-endings
Because these are der-words, their endings are identical to the definite article in every case, gender, and number. Here is the full pattern, using dieser as the model — but jeder, welcher, and (singular) jener slot into the exact same grid:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dieser | diese | dieses | diese |
| Accusative | diesen | diese | dieses | diese |
| Dative | diesem | dieser | diesem | diesen |
| Genitive | dieses | dieser | dieses | dieser |
Lay it next to der/die/das and you'll see the endings match perfectly: -er, -e, -es, -en, -em, -er, -es, -er. So welcher Mann mirrors der Mann, welches Buch mirrors das Buch, in welchem Haus mirrors in dem Haus, and so on.
Dieses Buch habe ich schon dreimal gelesen.
I've already read this book three times.
In diesem Haus bin ich aufgewachsen.
I grew up in this house.
Welche Farbe nehmen wir für die Küche?
Which color shall we take for the kitchen?
In each case the determiner ending is doing real grammatical work: dieses shows neuter, diesem shows dative, welche shows feminine. That's why a following adjective stays weak — the der-word has already announced the case.
dieser — "this"
Dieser points to something near, recent, or just-mentioned. It is fully neutral in register and extremely common in both speech and writing.
Diese Woche habe ich kaum Zeit.
This week I've hardly got any time.
Kennst du diesen Mann auf dem Foto?
Do you know this man in the photo?
In speech, Germans often pair dieser with hier ("here") for extra pointing force: dieses Buch hier ("this book here").
jeder — "each / every" (singular only)
Jeder means "each" or "every" and — this is the key fact — it exists only in the singular. There is no plural jede meaning "all"; for the plural idea you switch to alle.
Jeden Tag trinke ich zwei Tassen Kaffee.
Every day I drink two cups of coffee.
Jedes Kind bekommt ein Geschenk.
Each child gets a present.
Sie grüßt jeden Morgen ihre Nachbarin.
She greets her neighbor every morning.
When you want "all the children" rather than "each child," it's alle Kinder, not a plural of jeder:
Alle Kinder bekommen ein Geschenk.
All the children get a present.
welcher — "which"
Welcher asks "which (one)?" — it picks from a known set. It works both as an interrogative (in questions) and as a relative pronoun (in formal relative clauses, though der/die/das is far more common there in speech).
Welcher Zug fährt nach Hamburg?
Which train goes to Hamburg?
Mit welchem Bus kommt man zum Bahnhof?
Which bus do you take to the station?
Note that endingless welch survives only in elevated exclamations — Welch ein Glück! ("What luck!"), Welch eine Überraschung! — which are literary. In ordinary questions, always inflect: welcher, welche, welches.
jener — "that" (and why you rarely need it)
This is the big one. Textbooks present jener as the German word for "that," neatly opposite dieser ("this"). On paper that's tidy. In real spoken German, almost nobody uses jener for everyday "that." It sounds formal, bookish, even archaic. Native speakers mark "that" — pointing to something farther away — by using the ordinary article der / die / das plus da or dort ("there"):
Das Buch da gehört mir, dieses hier nicht.
That book (there) is mine, this one isn't.
Siehst du den Mann dort? Das ist mein Lehrer.
Do you see that man over there? That's my teacher.
So the natural opposition in speech is not dieses / jenes Buch but dieses Buch hier / das Buch da. Where does jener still live? In formal and literary registers, in fixed contrasts like dieser oder jener ("this one or that one"), and in time phrases like in jenen Tagen ("in those days"), which sound deliberately elevated.
In jenen Tagen war alles noch ganz anders.
In those days everything was still completely different. (literary)
Der eine oder andere Fehler, dieser oder jener Zweifel — das ist normal.
The odd mistake, this or that doubt — that's normal. (formal/literary)
Common Mistakes
❌ Dies Haus gefällt mir.
Incorrect — dieser must show its case ending before a noun.
✅ Dieses Haus gefällt mir.
I like this house.
Before a neuter noun, dieser becomes dieses. The bare form dies only stands alone as a pronoun (Dies ist mein Haus — "This is my house"), never directly in front of the noun it modifies.
❌ Welch Buch meinst du?
Incorrect — welcher must inflect in a normal question.
✅ Welches Buch meinst du?
Which book do you mean?
Endingless welch belongs only to literary exclamations. In real questions, decline it: welches Buch, welche Frau, welcher Mann.
❌ Jede Kinder bekommen ein Geschenk.
Incorrect — jeder is singular only; use alle for the plural.
✅ Alle Kinder bekommen ein Geschenk.
All the children get a present.
There is no plural jeder. The moment you mean "all," switch to alle.
❌ Gib mir jenes Buch dort, bitte.
Unnatural in speech — jenes for everyday 'that' sounds bookish.
✅ Gib mir das Buch da, bitte.
Give me that book (there), please.
Grammatically jenes isn't wrong, but no one orders a book across the table with jenes. Spoken German says das Buch da.
❌ Ich fahre mit dieser Bus.
Incorrect — dative masculine needs diesem.
✅ Ich fahre mit diesem Bus.
I'm going by this bus.
After mit (a dative preposition) and before masculine Bus, dieser must take the dative ending: diesem, exactly like dem.
Key Takeaways
- dieser, jener, jeder, welcher are all der-words — they take the exact der/die/das endings, with no umlauts or special characters.
- jeder is singular only ("each / every"); the plural idea is alle.
- welcher declines fully in questions; bare welch is literary-exclamation only.
- Don't use jener for everyday "that" — spoken German marks "that" with der/die/das + da/dort. Save jener for formal writing and set phrases like in jenen Tagen.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Determiners: der-words and ein-wordsA2 — The two determiner families that drive German adjective endings — der-words decline like the definite article, ein-words like ein, and each triggers its own adjective pattern.
- Definite Article Declension Across All CasesA2 — The full 4x4 der/die/das table — the master template that also unlocks dieser, jeder, welcher, and the strong adjective endings.
- Weak Adjective Declension (after der-words)A2 — The weak endings used when a definite article or der-word already shows the case: only -e or -en, with -e in just five cells.