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I want to say the following in German:

You can also have a look at the homepage and the "definition phase is over!" page of this google site.

The translator has written the following:

Du kannst dich auch auf unserer Homepage oder auf der "Definition Phase is Over" Seite umschauen.

But I think the following would be a better translation:

Du kannst dich auch auf der Startseite oder auf der "Definition Phase is Over" Seite diese Google Webseite umschauen.

My question is how should I understand that which demonstrative adjective (diese/dieser ) should be used between Google?

In other words, is the demonstrative adjective of Nominative/Accusative/Dative case and how should I recognize the case?

Regarding that this google site is the possessor of the the homepage and the "Definition phase is over! page", don't we have genitive case for demonstrative adjective?

Regarding that the sentence is for posting on social networks (facebook, etc. so maybe it's better to use every day German) and since we don't have genitive case for demonstrative adjectives (I don't know if we have or not, I'm just guessing that we don't regarding this page) but we have genitive case for definite articles (again I'm just guessing that we have based on this page), can the following be a better translation? I mean expressing possession with von and using the dative case on both sides.

Du kannst dich auch auf der Startseite oder auf der "Definition Phase is Over" Seite von dieser Google Webseite umschauen.

Generally, do we have genitive case for German demonstrative adjectives as we do for German indefinite and definite articles?

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    de.wiktionary.org/wiki/dieser
    – Carsten S
    Commented Oct 12, 2016 at 21:30
  • Note that strictly speaking “Webseite” is not a proper translation of “website”.
    – Carsten S
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:25
  • @CarstenS so what is the proper word for website in German?
    – Sepideh Abadpour
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:27
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    @sepideh, if there was a fully satisfactory translation then I would have mentioned it ;)
    – Carsten S
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:28
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    The “site” problem has been discussed here. So “Seite” is somewhat okay. In your case however you have a page on a site in English and a Seite on a Seite in German, which is not optimal.
    – Carsten S
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:32

2 Answers 2

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Du kannst dich auch auf der Startseite oder auf der "Definition Phase is Over"-Seite dieser Google-Webseite umschauen.

As you correctly added in your edit, the correct case is the genitive here. The pronoun describes a property of the Google-Webseite, namely its "Definition Phase is Over"-Seite, which is a possessive.

As for constructing the possessive with von + dative: this is permissible, but genitive generally sounds better.

Also, demonstrative pronouns do have genitive forms.

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  • thanks, but i've added a final edit to my question, would you please have a look at it again?
    – Sepideh Abadpour
    Commented Oct 12, 2016 at 20:47
  • @sepideh constructing the possessive with von is permissible, but genitive sounds better. Also, demonstrative pronouns do have genitive forms.
    – Chieron
    Commented Oct 12, 2016 at 21:31
  • Just one more question. i don't understand why do you say demonstrative pronoun and not demonstrative adjective? The word dieser in the dieser Google-Website has not taken the place of the noun, it is modifying the noun and giving more explanations about it (pointing to it, explanation about its place, etc). Am I wrong? So shouldn't it be called demonstrative adjective and not demonstrative pronoun?
    – Sepideh Abadpour
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 16:28
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    To me, it's actually an article. It seems that English actually distinguishes between demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, while German does not do this (Demonstrativpronomen can be used both as pronouns and as adjectives/articles).
    – Chieron
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 17:51
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Du kannst dich auch auf der Startseite oder auf der "Definition Phase is Over" Seite von dieser Google Webseite umschauen.

That's not an demonstrative adjective but a demonstrative pronoun.

Your prepositional construction (von dieser) is equally good to the genitive version –– although I'd prefer the prepositional phrase. People who want to seem educated think the genitive is the thing to reach this atmosphere of education.

Remember: Every possessive construction with ›von‹ can be turnt into a genitive.

The correct sentence is:

Du kannst dich auch auf der Startseite oder auf der Definition-Phase-is-Over-Seite (von) dieser Google-Webseite umschauen.

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  • Better: Definition-Phase-is-over-Seite. Either way with hyphens, otherwise it's orthographically wrong. And never use quotation marks for word composition.
    – deponensvogel
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 12:16
  • i don't understand why do you say demonstrative pronoun and not demonstrative adjective? The word dieser in the dieser Google-Website has not taken the place of the noun, it is modifying the noun and giving more explanations about it (pointing to it, explanation about its place, etc). Am I wrong? So shouldn't it be called demonstrative adjective and not demonstrative pronoun?
    – Sepideh Abadpour
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 16:27
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    It's natural to pronouns to appear in the Attribut (Attribut: schöner Mann). Pronouns also never take the place of the noun (better forget the meaning behind pro-noun). You just use them in the position where a noun could stand, too, but you don't replace them with each other. The connection between a pronoun and a noun does only exist in your intellect, but not in the speech centre.
    – deponensvogel
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 16:42
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    In my opinion, the better term in this case is demonstrative article. (CC @sepideh)
    – Jan
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 22:10

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