Breakdown of Die laute Menschenmenge kauft viele Köstlichkeiten, was den hart verhandelnden Händlern gefällt.
kaufen
to buy
viel
much / a lot
gefallen
to please
laut
loud, loudly
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
hart
hard, tough
was
which (referring to a whole clause)
der Händler
the dealer
verhandeln
to negotiate
die Menschenmenge
the crowd (of people)
die Köstlichkeit
the delicacy
Questions & Answers about Die laute Menschenmenge kauft viele Köstlichkeiten, was den hart verhandelnden Händlern gefällt.
How does the extended participle phrase den hart verhandelnden Händlern work grammatically?
This is an extended present participle attribute. The present participle verhandelnden acts as an adjective modifying Händlern, and the adverb hart modifies that participle. In German, this entire descriptive chunk is sandwiched between the article den and the noun Händlern. English usually places this after the noun as a relative clause, such as vendors who negotiate hard.
Why does the participle verhandelnden take an -en ending?
When used before a noun, participles take standard adjective endings. Because the verb gefallen requires the dative case, den Händlern is dative plural. Following a definite plural article like den, the adjective ending is always -en.
Why is there an extra -n on the end of the noun Händlern?
This is a dative plural noun. In German, almost all plural nouns must add an extra -n in the dative case unless they already end in -n or -s. Since the base plural of the noun is just Händler, it requires this extra dative -n here.
Why use the relative pronoun was here instead of das to mean which?
You must use was when the relative pronoun refers back to an entire preceding clause or situation rather than a specific noun. Here, was refers to the whole event of the crowd buying delicacies. If it were referring only to a specific neuter noun, you would use das.
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