When you are out shopping for clothes, you will often need to point out specific items: "this coat", "that dress", "these shoes". In German, we use the word dieser to say "this" or "these".
Pointing out specific items
Just like der, die, and das, the demonstrative pronoun dieser changes its ending to match the gender of the noun it points to, as well as whether that noun is singular or plural.
| Gender / Number | Form |
|---|
| Masculine | dieser |
| Feminine | diese |
| Neuter | dieses |
| Plural | diese |
Notice how the endings look just like the last letters of the definite articles (der, die, das).
"This" as a direct object
When the item you are pointing to is the direct object of the sentence—like the specific thing you are buying or trying on—you need to use the accusative case.
Just like der changes to den, the masculine form dieser changes to diesen.
The feminine, neuter, and plural forms do not change at all.
Using "der, die, das" to mean "that"
While dieser usually translates to "this", German speakers often use the plain definite articles (der, die, das, den) to mean "that" or "those".
To strongly emphasize exactly which item you mean, you can even put the object at the very beginning of the sentence. When you do this, remember that the verb must still stay in the second position, pushing the subject (ich) until after the verb.
