In the novel I am reading a suspect says to the police "Meine Leute, das sind alles anständige Menschen, ...". My question is why does the author write "das sind" rather than "die sind"? After all "die Leute" is plural.
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2Does this answer your question? (Es/Sie) sind starke Studenten – RHa Jun 07 '23 at 06:15
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1https://german.stackexchange.com/q/38793/3237 – Carsten S Jun 07 '23 at 06:34
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I checked these questions and I don't think they address the actual confusion here, though they may help clarify things. To the OP, it's usually a good idea to include the full sentence for context. – RDBury Jun 07 '23 at 12:17
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Neuter forms of pronouns have special uses. Das is a demonstrative pronoun in neuter in your sentence. It ignores the gender and even the number of what it refers to. You find it in copulative sentences.
Das ist meine Mutter. Das ist mein Vater. Das sind meine Kinder.
Dudenband 4 Ausgabe 2009 Randnummer 352
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