dessen

Dessen is a German relative pronoun used in the genitive to refer back to a masculine or neuter noun in the main clause and to introduce a relative clause. It expresses possession or association, as in examples like der Mann, dessen Auto rot ist (the man whose car is red) or das Haus, dessen Dach neu ist (the house whose roof is new).

Form and usage

The genitive relative pronoun has two forms:

- dessen for masculine and neuter singular antecedents (Der Mann, dessen Auto ist rot).

- deren for feminine singular and all plural antecedents (Die Frau, deren Hut neu ist; Die Häuser, deren Dächer blau sind).

These forms agree with the gender and number of the antecedent and replace the genitive article plus noun in the relative clause. In a relative clause, dessen or deren stands in the genitive position, and the rest of the clause follows normally (e.g., Das Auto, dessen Farbe rot ist).

Wessen as a question form

Wessen is the genitive question pronoun used to ask about possession: Wessen Auto ist das? It serves a similar function in questions, whereas dessen and deren are used in declarative relative clauses.

Notes

In modern usage, the genitive form is sometimes avoided in favor of a prepositional construction (zum Beispiel das Auto von dem Mann), but for native-sounding relative clauses, dessen and deren are standard. Dessen and deren distinguish masculine/neuter versus feminine/plural antecedents, respectively.