Word
Meine Freundin sucht eine Zeitschrift, deren Titel sie gestern gelesen hat.
Meaning
My friend is looking for a magazine whose title she read yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
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Questions & Answers about Meine Freundin sucht eine Zeitschrift, deren Titel sie gestern gelesen hat.
What is the role of deren in this sentence?
deren is a genitive relative pronoun. It refers back to eine Zeitschrift (feminine singular) and expresses possession: “a magazine whose title ….”
Why is deren used instead of dessen?
German has two genitive relative pronouns:
- dessen for masculine and neuter antecedents
- deren for feminine and plural antecedents
Since Zeitschrift is feminine, we use deren.
Why do we need the genitive case here?
We’re indicating a possessive relationship between Zeitschrift and Titel (“the title of the magazine”). In German, possession is normally shown by the genitive, so a genitive relative pronoun is the most concise way to say “whose.”
What does deren translate to in English?
It corresponds to the English “whose” when you refer back to a feminine or plural noun.
Why is hat placed at the end of the relative clause?
German subordinate clauses—including relative clauses—use verb-final word order. That means the finite verb (here hat) goes to the very end.
Who does sie refer to in sie gestern gelesen hat—the friend or the magazine?
sie refers to meine Freundin (the friend). She is the one doing the reading. The magazine itself is picked out by deren; sie picks out the friend as the subject of gelesen hat.
Why don’t we see den Titel here instead of just Titel?
When you use a genitive relative pronoun like deren, it occupies the determiner slot for Titel. The noun remains in its base (uninflected) form. For masculine singular nouns like Titel, the base form happens to look like the accusative, so you don’t add den.
Is there another way to say this without a genitive relative pronoun?
Yes, though it’s less formal or a bit more round-about. For instance:
• Meine Freundin sucht eine Zeitschrift, von der sie gestern den Titel gelesen hat.
• Or split into two sentences:
Meine Freundin sucht eine Zeitschrift.
Gestern hat sie den Titel gelesen.
These avoid deren, but the genitive form is the most direct and idiomatic.