Irgendjemandes

Irgendjemandes is the genitive form of the German indefinite pronoun irgendjemand, used to indicate ownership by an unspecified person. It functions as a possessive modifier and can attach to a noun in a variety of positions, for example irg endjemandes Auto or das Auto irgendjemandes.

Form and usage: The standard declension of irgendjemand yields: nominative irgendjemand, genitive irgendjemandes, dative irgendjemandem, accusative irgendjemanden. Consequently, irgendjemandes marks possession without naming the owner. The construction is common in everyday spoken German and informal writing. In formal contexts, speakers often replace it with a more explicit phrase such as das Auto einer unbekannten Person or das Auto von irgendjemandem.

Nuance and register: Irgendjemandes conveys vagueness about the owner and can shift emphasis toward the object rather than the owner. It suggests that the speaker either does not know who owns the thing or that the identity is irrelevant to the point being made. The phrase can appear in negative or neutral statements and is widely understood across varieties of standard German.

Examples: Ich habe irgendjemandes Schlüssel gefunden. Das ist irgendjemandes Auto vor dem Haus. Das könnte das Fahrrad von irgendjemandes Bekannten sein, aber niemand weiß es sicher. For more formal wording, one might say das Auto einer unbekannten Person or das Auto von jemandem, ohne die Eigentumsbeziehung zu betonen.

See also: indefinite pronouns in German, possessive constructions, genitive usage in German.