Breakdown of Der König traf den Herzog und dessen Sohn.
und
and
treffen
to meet
der Sohn
the son
der König
the king
der Herzog
the duke
dessen
his (referring back to something just mentioned)
Questions & Answers about Der König traf den Herzog und dessen Sohn.
Why does this sentence use dessen instead of seinen for "his"?
If the sentence said seinen Sohn, the possessive would refer back to the subject of the sentence, meaning the king met his own son. By using the demonstrative pronoun dessen (literally "of that one"), it clearly refers to the other person just mentioned: the duke's son.
How do we know to use dessen rather than deren?
The son is the direct object being met. Why isn't there an accusative ending on dessen?
Unlike regular possessive adjectives (like seinen), the demonstrative pronouns dessen and deren do not take grammatical endings to match the noun that follows them. They are fixed in their genitive forms. So, even though Sohn is in the accusative case here, dessen stays exactly as it is.
Herzog is a title for a male person. Why isn't it an n-noun like den Prinzen?
It is easy to assume all male aristocratic titles take weak declension (n-declension), but Herzog is a common exception. It follows the standard strong declension, which is why it takes no extra -n or -en ending in the accusative case here.
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