Breakdown of Ich kenne die Schauspielerin, deren Idol Gitarre spielt.
ich
I
spielen
to play
kennen
to know (somebody/something)
die Gitarre
the guitar
die Schauspielerin
the actress
deren
whose (f/pl)
das Idol
the idol
Questions & Answers about Ich kenne die Schauspielerin, deren Idol Gitarre spielt.
Why do we use deren here instead of dessen?
The relative pronoun refers back to the "owner" in the main clause, which is die Schauspielerin (the actress). Because she is feminine, we use deren to mean "whose". If the sentence were about a male actor (der Schauspieler), we would use dessen.
Does deren need to change its ending to match the word Idol?
No, and this is a great thing to remember! Unlike normal possessive adjectives (like mein or ihr), the genitive relative pronouns dessen and deren never change their endings to match the thing being owned. They only match the gender and number of the owner. Since the actress is feminine, it stays deren, even though das Idol is a neuter noun.
Why is spielt at the very end of the sentence?
The part of the sentence after the comma is a relative clause. A relative clause gives us more information about a noun in the main sentence, and it always acts as a subordinate clause. This means the conjugated verb (spielt) gets kicked to the very end.
Why isn't there an article before Gitarre?
When talking about playing musical instruments, German usually drops the article. While in English we say "plays the guitar", in German you simply say Gitarre spielen.
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