Unambiguous possessives (dessen, deren)

The Ambiguity Problem

In English, a sentence like "The king met the duke and his son" is ambiguous. Is it the king's son or the duke's son? In standard German, using the regular possessive pronoun (seinen Sohn) creates the same confusion, though it usually points back to the subject (the king).

To clarify that the son belongs to the latter person mentioned (the duke), German uses the demonstrative possessive pronouns dessen and deren.

Masculine and Neuter Owners: dessen

If the "owner" you are pointing back to is a masculine or neuter noun, use dessen. This explicitly tells the listener that the item or person belongs to the most recently mentioned masculine or neuter noun, rather than the subject of the sentence.

In the sentence above, dessen makes it completely clear that we are talking about the duke's son, not the king's.

It works exactly the same way when the owner is a neuter noun, such as das Reich (the empire):

Feminine and Plural Owners: deren

When referring back to a feminine or plural owner, use deren.

Here, deren refers back to the feminine noun die Königin (the queen). The exact same word is used when the owners are a plural group:

No Case Endings

Unlike regular possessive pronouns (like sein or ihr), which must add endings to match the case and gender of the noun they modify, dessen and deren never change. They only depend on the gender and number of the owner.

Notice how dessen stays exactly the same in the following sentence, even though the objects being possessed (Intrigen) are plural: