Breakdown of Was für ein Album ist das, dessen Lieder dich so faszinieren?
sein
to be
dich
you (singular, informal)
das Lied
the song
so
so, such (intensifier)
was für ein
what kind of
dessen
whose (m/n)
faszinieren
to fascinate
das Album
the album
Questions & Answers about Was für ein Album ist das, dessen Lieder dich so faszinieren?
Why do we use dessen here instead of deren?
The relative pronoun dessen means "whose". We use it here because it refers back to das Album, which is a neuter noun. If the noun we were referring back to was feminine or plural, we would use deren.
Does dessen affect the case of the word Lieder?
No, it just shows possession. The case of Lieder depends on its job in its own clause. Here, the songs are doing the fascinating, so dessen Lieder is the subject of the relative clause and is in the nominative case.
Why is the verb faszinieren plural and at the very end of the sentence?
The verb is pushed to the end because this is a relative clause. It is in the plural form because its subject is the plural noun Lieder (songs), not the singular noun Album.
I see the word für in the first half. Why doesn't it act like a normal preposition?
The phrase was für ein (meaning "what kind of") is a fixed expression where für loses its normal power to force the accusative case. Instead, the case of ein depends entirely on its role in the sentence. Since Album is the subject here, it is in the nominative case.
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