Breakdown of Wer Turnschuhe trägt, den weise ich ab.
ich
I
wer
who
tragen
to carry, to wear
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Turnschuh
the sneaker
abweisen
to turn away
Questions & Answers about Wer Turnschuhe trägt, den weise ich ab.
Why does the sentence start with wer (nominative) but use den (accusative) in the second half?
In these "whoever" structures, the pronoun takes the case required by its own specific clause. In the first half, wer is the subject doing the wearing, so it is nominative. In the second half, that same person is the direct object being turned away by "I" (ich), so the pronoun pointing back to them must be accusative (den).
Why use den here instead of ihn for "him/them"?
When a sentence starts with a wer (whoever) clause, German typically uses a demonstrative pronoun like der, den, or dem at the beginning of the main clause to point back to that person. It sounds much more natural and connects the two ideas more strongly than a regular personal pronoun like ihn would.
Why is the verb weise right after den?
This is the classic German "verb second" rule. The demonstrative pronoun den sits in the first position of the main clause, acting as the bridge to the "whoever" clause. Because den takes up position one, the conjugated verb (weise) must immediately follow in position two, pushing the subject (ich) to position three.
What verb does weise ... ab come from?
It comes from the separable verb abweisen, which means to reject, refuse, or turn away. Because it is used here as the main verb of an independent clause, the prefix ab separates and goes to the very end of the sentence.
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