Breakdown of Gestoßen hat er mit viel Drall, was mich fasziniert hat.
er
he
haben
to have
viel
much / a lot
mich
me
mit
with
faszinieren
to fascinate
was
which (referring to a whole clause)
stoßen
to strike (hit / bump)
der Drall
the spin
Questions & Answers about Gestoßen hat er mit viel Drall, was mich fasziniert hat.
Why is Gestoßen at the very beginning of the sentence instead of at the end?
In standard word order, the past participle goes at the end: Er hat mit viel Drall gestoßen. Moving it to Position 1 is called topicalization. It puts heavy emphasis on the action itself, often to set up a contrast or to highlight how remarkable the strike was.
Why is was used as the relative pronoun here, rather than a word like das or den?
When a relative pronoun refers back to an entire preceding idea or clause rather than just one specific noun, you must use was. Here, was refers to the whole fact that he struck the ball with a lot of spin, not just the spin itself.
What context is this sentence likely from, given words like Gestoßen and Drall?
This is clearly about a game like billiards, pool, or table tennis. While stoßen normally means to push or bump, in cue sports it means to strike the ball. Drall translates to the spin or English put on a ball.
Shouldn't viel have a dative ending because it follows mit?
The preposition mit does trigger the dative case, but viel (much/a lot) and wenig (little) usually do not take adjective endings when they are placed right before uncountable, singular nouns like Drall (spin), Geld (money), or Zeit (time).
Learn Gestoßen hat er mit viel Drall, was mich fasziniert hat and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free