Breakdown of Er kennt den Minister und dessen Geheimnis seit einem Jahr.
ein
a, an (eine)
er
he
und
and
das Jahr
the year
kennen
to know (somebody/something)
seit
since, for (time)
das Geheimnis
the secret
der Minister
the minister
dessen
his (referring back to something just mentioned)
Questions & Answers about Er kennt den Minister und dessen Geheimnis seit einem Jahr.
Why use dessen here instead of sein?
If the sentence used sein Geheimnis, it would be ambiguous: it could mean the subject's own secret. By using the demonstrative possessive pronoun dessen, it specifically refers back to the last masculine noun mentioned, which is den Minister.
Why is the pronoun dessen and not deren?
The demonstrative possessive pronoun must match the gender and number of the owner. Since the secret belongs to der Minister (masculine singular), we use dessen. If it belonged to a woman (die Ministerin), it would be deren Geheimnis. The gender of the thing being owned (das Geheimnis) does not change this word.
Why is the German verb kennt in the present tense when the English translation uses the present perfect (has known)?
When an action started in the past and is still ongoing, German uses the present tense combined with seit. English uses the present perfect. If you used the German perfect tense (hat gekannt), it would imply he no longer knows the minister or his secret.
Why use kennen instead of wissen for knowing a secret?
You use kennen to express familiarity with a noun, like a person, place, or a specific concept (here, the direct objects den Minister and dessen Geheimnis). You use wissen for knowing facts, which is usually followed by a clause (like Er weiß, dass es ein Geheimnis gibt).
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