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Imagine we have a bunch of identical pens on a table. How do I ask what they are? I want to say:

Was sind das?

And I would want to answer:

Das sind Federn.

Is this the most natural way to do both sides of this dialog? I almost want to put die instead of das, how would that sound? What nuances should I be aware of?

Ingmar
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James Lovebirch
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2 Answers2

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Well, your instinct is right, the numerus does not agree, thus it sounds somewhat odd. Using die as plural demonstrative pronoun is possible, but diese, die da, die hier sounds better.

Was ist das? could be used, irrespective of the actual number (pointing at the pile). Here an explanation is expected as answer, giving the word usually does not suffice.
When asking for the word: Wie nennt man die hier? or Wie heißt das?/ Wie heißen die hier? would work fine.

Anyway, pens are not Federn, but Füller (Füllfederhalter) or more general Stifte. Or the other way round, Federn means quills, feathers or springs.

Chieron
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  • Good explaination, agree 100% – user3135691 Nov 10 '15 at 07:18
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    One can write with a quill, though... – PMF Nov 10 '15 at 09:21
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    @PMF : Yep, that's why I bothered listing it. But while a writing quill can be referred to as a (Schreib-)Feder, it doesn't fit into this description: Imagine we have a bunch of identical pens on a table.* A quill is not a pen, as far as I'm concerned, even though it can fullfill the same role. Multiple ones won't be identical. – Chieron Nov 10 '15 at 09:42
  • +1 although minor wording/spelling/grammatical errors that are not part of the question should be corrected in the original post and explained in a comment ;) – Jan Nov 10 '15 at 10:47
  • Which I will do in the future, as I can actually comment now ;-) – Chieron Nov 10 '15 at 12:04
  • I would like to point out that "die hier" is a very colloquial use. "Wie nennt man das?" or "Wie heißt das?" is more 'proper'. Also, "Füller" specifically refers to fountain pens only. "Stifte", on the other hand, can be ballpoint pens, felt tip pens, pencils or even crayons. – Jens Neubauer Nov 10 '15 at 15:25
  • @Jens Neubauer: I pictured a situation, where you'd point at something (somewhat implying a colloquial setting). In that case, plural works, but I agree that otherwise the singular das is better. Füller is the only pen that has a Feder included (referring to the OP's misunderstanding). pen and Stift are not entirely synonymous (e.g. I'd not count pencils under pens) – Chieron Nov 10 '15 at 15:43
  • Pencil is Bleistift, so in German a pencil is definitely a Stift. Funny enough, a fountain pen (Füller/Füllfederhalter) is no a Stift. – Jens Neubauer Nov 10 '15 at 19:53
  • Thank you thank you thank you for correcting my wrong word for pen. I'm sure I got that from a bad English-German dictionary. – James Lovebirch Nov 10 '15 at 23:38
  • Actually, let me ask for a little more clarification. Could you provide me the most natural way to answer each of those questions? Specifically these, with my guesses. Was ist das? Das sind Fueller. Was sind die hier? Die sind hier Fueller. Wie nennt man die hier? Man nennt die hier Fueller. Would Fueller be an appropriate word for a cheap bic, or should I stick with Stift for that? – James Lovebirch Nov 11 '15 at 00:13
  • @James Lovebirch: BIC doesn't make fountain pens, right? So it would either be a Stift, or, in the case of a ballpoint pen, a Kugelschreiber (but Stift would work for that, too). Edit: Also, your examples are correct, with one expection: Don't split "die hier". So it would be "Die hier sind Füller", but "Das sind Füller." sounds more natural and works as an answer to every one of your questions. – Jens Neubauer Nov 11 '15 at 06:23
  • Was ist das (hier,da)? - Das (da) sind Füller. (prepositions are optional and work better when there is some pointing going on. e.g. pointing at an arrangement with different things, going through them one by one) Die hier sind Füller is unnatural, indeed. In the answer, die doesn't work well. – Chieron Nov 11 '15 at 15:32
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In a colloquial setting, you could ask:

Was sind das für Dinger/Teile/Sachen?

But you would probably only do so if you really do not recognize the objects as what they are.

bsumirak
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