Breakdown of Hast du eine Ahnung, wer dieser anonyme Verehrer ist?
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
du
you (informal singular)
haben
to have
wer
who
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
die Ahnung
the clue, the inkling
anonym
anonymous
der Verehrer
the admirer
Questions & Answers about Hast du eine Ahnung, wer dieser anonyme Verehrer ist?
Why do we use wer here instead of irgendwer, since this lesson is about indefinite pronouns?
In this sentence, wer is simply the question word meaning "who", introducing an indirect question ("...who this admirer is?"). irgendwer means "anyone" or "someone". If you wanted to use an indefinite pronoun here, you would have to change the meaning and structure, for example: Ist dieser anonyme Verehrer irgendwer, den ich kenne? (Is this anonymous admirer someone that I know?).
Why is the ending on the adjective anonyme just an -e? Shouldn't a masculine subject have an -er ending?
Because it comes after dieser. Words like dieser, jeder, and mancher (often called der-words) already show the strong masculine nominative ending (-er). Since dieser does the heavy lifting to show the case and gender, the following adjective gets the "weak" ending, which for the nominative case is just -e. Therefore, it is dieser anonyme Verehrer.
Why does the verb ist go at the very end of the sentence?
The phrase wer dieser anonyme Verehrer ist is an indirect question. Indirect questions act as subordinate clauses in German, which means the conjugated verb (ist) gets kicked to the end of the clause.
Do I always need a comma before question words like wer in the middle of a sentence?
Yes! In English we just say "Do you have any idea who..." without a pause, but German punctuation rules strictly require a comma to separate the main clause (Hast du eine Ahnung) from the subordinate clause (wer ... ist).
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