Der, der im Garten sitzt, ist mein Bruder.

to be

Breakdown of Der, der im Garten sitzt, ist mein Bruder.

• der Garten: the garden
• sitzen: to sit
• mein: my; (masculine or neuter, nominative)

Questions & Answers about Der, der im Garten sitzt, ist mein Bruder.

Why are there two der words in a row? Doesn’t that mean “the the”?

No. The two der forms have different grammatical functions that just happen to look the same:

• The first Der is a demonstrative pronoun: roughly “that one / the one”.
• The second der is a relative pronoun: like “who / that” in English.

So the structure is basically: That one, who is sitting in the garden, is my brother.
It looks like “der, der …”, but it’s really “that one, who …” in German form.

What exactly is the job of the first Der?

The first Der is a pronoun standing alone, not an article before a noun.

• If it were an article, you would expect a noun after it, like der Mann (the man).
• Here it stands by itself, so it’s a demonstrative pronoun, similar to “that one” or “the one” in English.

It refers to a specific person already known from the context (for example: there may be several people, and you are picking out “that one”).

What is the second der doing?