Breakdown of Da die Projekte erfolgreich sind, danken wir deren finanziellen Spendern.
sein
to be
wir
we
danken
to thank
das Projekt
the project
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
erfolgreich
successful / successfully
da
since, because
deren
their (referring back to something just mentioned)
der Spender
the donor
finanziell
financial
Questions & Answers about Da die Projekte erfolgreich sind, danken wir deren finanziellen Spendern.
Why is deren used here instead of derer?
Both are genitive plural demonstrative pronouns. You use deren when referring backward to something already mentioned (here, die Projekte). You use derer when pointing forward, usually to a relative clause (e.g., 'the donors of those who...'). Since we are pointing back to the projects, deren is required.
Could we use the regular possessive ihren (their) instead of deren?
Yes, ihren works perfectly and means the exact same thing. Using deren instead of a normal possessive pronoun is a stylistic choice that sounds slightly more formal. It is also a very handy trick to avoid ambiguity in sentences where 'their' could refer to more than one group of people or things.
Why does the noun Spendern end in an extra -n here?
The verb danken always takes the dative case. The base plural of 'donor' is die Spender. In the dative plural, you must add an extra -n to the noun unless it already ends in -n or -s.
Why is the verb danken placed immediately after the comma?
This is because of the verb-second (V2) rule. The entire subordinate clause (Da die Projekte erfolgreich sind) takes up position 1. To keep the main clause's verb in position 2, danken has to come immediately after the comma, before the subject wir.
What is the difference between da and weil in this context?
Both mean 'because' or 'since' and both send the verb to the end of the clause. da is often used when the reason is already known or contextually obvious (like 'since' in English), and it frequently starts a sentence. weil is more common in spoken German and heavily emphasizes the reason itself.
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