Breakdown of Sind das die Mädchen, deren Idole so schöne Stimmen haben?
sein
to be
schön
beautiful
haben
to have
das Mädchen
the girl
Questions & Answers about Sind das die Mädchen, deren Idole so schöne Stimmen haben?
Why do we use deren here instead of dessen?
The relative pronoun deren means "whose" and refers back to die Mädchen (the girls). Even though the word for girl is neuter (das Mädchen), it is plural here. The genitive relative pronoun for all plural nouns is deren. If we were talking about just one girl, it would actually be dessen!
Why is it Sind das instead of a plural pronoun for "those"?
When you use das to point things out (meaning "this is" or "those are"), it stays frozen as das regardless of the gender or number of the noun that follows. However, the verb still changes to match the plural noun, which is why we say Sind das.
Why does the adjective in so schöne Stimmen only have an -e ending?
Stimmen (voices) is plural and acts as the direct object (accusative case) of the verb haben. Because there is no article like die or meine in front of it, the adjective has to take the strong ending to show the plural accusative case, which is -e.
Why does the verb haben go at the very end?
The phrase deren Idole so schöne Stimmen haben is a relative clause. In German, relative clauses act as subordinate clauses, which means the conjugated verb gets pushed to the very end.