One topic that tends to intimidate students learning German is the use of these four words: Wessen, dessen, deren, and denen. They are indeed tricky, but they make it possible to construct elegant sentences and are therefore very good to get acquainted with!

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Wessen, dessen, and deren can all be translated as "whose." However, unlike "whose" they are each only correct in certain situations. Wessen is related to wer, wen, and wem, i.e. it is asking "who?," but it is possessive. It is used when the "who" of the sentence is not known and could therefore be any gender:

Sach ma [Sag mal], wessen Freundin bist du eigentlich?

Tell me, whose friend are you actually?

Caption 45, Die Pfefferkörner - Gerüchteküche

 Play Caption

Es dachte auch nicht darüber nach, wessen Haferbrei das war.

She also didn't think about whose oat porridge it was.

Caption 19, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Goldlöckchen und die drei Bären

 Play Caption

Dessen is used when the person or noun in question has already been named or referred to, and is masculine or neuter:

Acht Minuten später schickt der Paulianer geschickt Julian Schieber,

Eight minutes later the "Paulianer" skillfully sends Julian Schieber

dessen Schuss aber knapp vorbeigeht.

whose shot, however, just misses.

Captions 10-11, Fußball - U21-Nationalmannschaft

 Play Caption

Deren is used when the person or noun in question has already been named or referred to, and is feminine or plural:

Seine königliche Hoheit, der Prinz,

His Royal Highness the Prince

wird die Frau heiraten, deren Fuß in diesen Glasschuh passt.“

will marry the woman whose foot fits in this glass slipper."

Captions 25-26, Märchenstunde - Das Aschenputtel

 Play Caption

Wessen, dessen, and deren are all genitive relative pronouns. The relative pronoun denen, however, is used for relative clauses involving a plural noun in the dative case, with prepositions such as mit, auf, nach, or bei.

Es macht einfach Spaß, mit denen Zeit zu verbringen.

It is simply fun to spend time with them.

Caption 36, Curly Horses - Pferdeglück auch für Allergiker

 Play Caption

Und hier sehen wir zwei alte Kutschen,

And here we see two old coaches,

auf denen man im Sommer Kutschfahrten machen kann mit der Familie zusammen.

upon which you can take coach rides together with you family in the summer.

Captions 37-38, Berlin - Domäne Dahlem

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Further Learning
Searching for any of these words on Yabla German will bring up a lot of examples that can help you solidify your understanding of the topic. You can additionally watch our videos featuring German teacher Barbara and her students working on relative clauses, starting with this one. 

The preposition gegen is usually translated as "against" in English, but there are some exceptions, especially when gegen comes up in a health context. When discussing whether a medicine is effective for a specific health condition, gegen is usually translated as "for":

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Gegen die Halsschmerzen hilft ein Hustenbonbon.

For sore throats, a cough drop helps.

Caption 9, Krank sein - mit Eva

 Play Caption

Das kann ganz gut gegen das Bauchweh helfen.

This can help a lot for a stomachache.

Caption 17, Krank sein - mit Eva

 Play Caption

However, gegen in regards to allergies is usually translated as "to": 

Ich bin erst mal allergisch gegen Pferde geworden...

I first became allergic to horses...

Caption 44, Curly Horses - Pferdeglück auch für Allergiker

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

One exception, however, is regarding immunization, where gegen is usually translated as "against": 

Bist du eigentlich gegen die Schweinegrippe geimpft?

Are you actually immunized against the swine flu?

Caption 24, Deutsche Musik - Thomas Godoj

 Play Caption

Further Learning
Do a search for gegen on Yabla German and see some more examples of how this preposition is used in German in a real world context! 

Are you bored with the same old clichés every year about the upcoming year? Let's go "back to the future" and take a look at some original aphorisms from classic German authors, followed up with a word from the aphorism used in another context in a Yabla video:

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Wird's besser? Wird’s schlimmer? fragt man alljährlich.

Seien wir ehrlich: Leben ist immer lebensgefährlich!

Will it get better? Will it get worse? You ask every year.

Let's be honest: Life is always life-threatening!

Erich Kästner (1899–1974)

Ein paar Jahre zuvor wäre das noch lebensgefährlich gewesen.

A few years prior, this would still have been life-threatening.

Caption 14, Curly Horses - Pferdeglück auch für Allergiker

 Play Caption

Ich kann freilich nicht sagen, ob es besser wird, wenn es anders wird,

Aber soviel kann ich sagen: Es muss anders werden, wenn es gut werden soll.

I cannot say, of course, if it will be better when it is different,

But this much I can say: It must be different, if it is going to get better.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799)

Ja, freilich! So machen wir das, jedes Jahr aufs Neue.

Yes, of course! We do it like this every year again and again.

Caption 17, München - Krampuslauf auf dem Christkindlmarkt

 Play Caption

Gut ist der Vorsatz, aber die Erfüllung ist schwer.

Good is the resolution, but the fulfillment is difficult.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

Die Arbeit mit den Tieren ist die Erfüllung eines Lebenstraums.

The work with the animals is the fulfillment of a life's dream.

Caption 62, Für Tierfreunde - Falknerei Feldberg

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Learning Suggestions:

The "Happy New Year!" greeting is different in different parts of Germany: Frohes neues Jahr (Northern Hesse); Frohes neues (Middle Rhein and Hesse); Gesundes neues Jahr (Eastern Germany); Gesundes neues (Dresden region); Gutes neues Jahr (Austria); Gutes neues (Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland and parts of Bavaria); Prosit Neujahr (Eastern Austria, Vienna); and Prost Neujahr (parts of Western Germany). But are you familiar with the German New Year's greeting "Ich wünsche dir einen guten Rutsch"? See last year's Yabla German Lesson Rutsch and rutschen: A Good “Slide” into the New Year! to find out more! ou can also read something by the authors quoted above. For beginners, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive makes for a fun read. Readers of all levels can enjoy the many clever sayings of physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who is known as the father of the German aphorism. For the very advanced, there is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, which is considered the most important work in all of German literature.