Breakdown of Er hasste die Frauen und deren Intrigen, weil sie den Wein vergifteten.
die Frau
the woman
er
he
und
and
sie
they
der Wein
the wine
weil
because (subordinating)
hassen
to hate
deren
their (referring back to something just mentioned)
die Intrige
the intrigue
vergiften
to poison
Questions & Answers about Er hasste die Frauen und deren Intrigen, weil sie den Wein vergifteten.
Why use deren here instead of the standard possessive pronoun ihre?
In this sentence, ihre (as in Er hasste die Frauen und ihre Intrigen) would easily be understood as the English equivalent of their intrigues. However, using the demonstrative possessive deren points emphatically back to the recently mentioned noun, die Frauen. It makes the sentence sound slightly more elevated and explicitly links the intrigues to those specific women. While ihre is grammatically correct, deren adds a stronger demonstrative punch.
What case is deren, and does its ending change to match Intrigen?
deren is the genitive plural form of the demonstrative pronoun der/die/das. Unlike regular possessive determiners (such as ihre, which change endings to match the noun they precede), deren is fixed. It reflects the gender and number of the possessors (plural, for die Frauen), but it does not take an extra adjective-like ending for the accusative plural noun Intrigen.
How does this lesson's concept of resolving ambiguity apply here?
In this specific sentence, there is no major ambiguity because the subject (Er) is masculine and the possessors of the intrigues are plural. Here, seine would clearly mean his and ihre would mean theirs. But imagine the subject was feminine: Sie hasste die andere Frau und ihre Intrigen. In that case, ihre could mean the subject's intrigues or the other woman's intrigues. By saying deren Intrigen, the pronoun strictly refers to the last mentioned noun (the other woman), instantly resolving the confusion. Using deren in our plural sentence follows this exact same useful pattern.
Why are hasste and vergifteten used instead of the spoken perfect tense?
Both verbs are in the Präteritum, which is the simple past tense. While spoken German heavily favors the perfect tense (like hat gehasst and vergiftet haben), the Präteritum is the standard tense for written narratives, literature, and storytelling. A sentence about hating women and poisoning wine sounds exactly like a line from a fantasy novel or a historical text, making the narrative past tense the most natural choice.
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