“dass” or “das” – The Difference (With Quiz)

Hello everyone,

and welcome to What is the Difference.
In this series, we talk about German words that learners think are the same, but that are in fact not.
And of all the pairs that are not the same, today’s pair is one of most “not the same”.
Because today, we’ll talk about

das vs dass

We’ll explain the difference and see it in practice with a bunch of examples, and then we’ll do a little exercise together.
If you want to jump straight down to the quiz just click here.

But if you want the explanation first, let’s let’s jump right.

The difference between the two das and dass is a written difference only.
So you can’t hear it, and you don’t need to think about it while speaking.
That’s great!

It IS important to write it correctly though, because the functions of the two words are entirely different. And if you mix up them up, the reader’s brain has to make a mental U-turn at full reading speed as soon as it becomes clear that the das they just read was actually a dass.

Many people have pulled their brain’s Grammaticus Maximus muscle because of this, so yeah… do try to learn it.

Fortunately, the difference is not too hard to comprehend.

The root of the problem is that both words translate to the English word that.

That is used for a lot of things, but they fall into two groups: article or pronoun on one side, also known as determiner.
And on the other side we have the conjunction.

das – The determiner

When that is used as an article or pronoun, its function is to verbally point at stuff.
And with the highly linguistic term “stuff” I mean persons, things or informations of any kind.
Let’s look at some examples.

• I don’t like that bar there.  – pointing to the bar
• Maria is dating Thomas now, did you know that? – pointing to the fact that Maria and Thomas are dating
• I called the car, that I bought last week, “Enginelina Jolie”.

Now, all these “that”s have a slightly different role (demonstrative article, pronoun, relative pronoun), but they all refer to a noun or fact and we can replace then with the, this or which.
The meaning might change slightly, but the general idea stays, and the sentence is still correct, because all these words have the fundamental function of “determining” a noun.

And in German, it is the function of das with one s.

Of course not every determining that will translate to das.

• Ich mag diese Bar da nicht.
• Maria datet jetzt Thomas, wusstest du das?
• Ich habe das Auto, das ich letzte Woche gekauft habe, Enginelina Jolie genannt.

It can also be der, dem, die, den, diese, diesem, doh! or damn.

But one thing it CANNOT be and that is dass.

Because dass  has nothing to do with nouns. It refers to nothing and stands for nothing.
Actually, it doesn’t really mean anything. Its pure grammatical function.

dass – The Conjunction

It’s the most basic conjunction there is and all it does is connecting a phrase to another.
That doesn’t mean that it’s not important, though. Dass is ranked 29 on the list of the most frequently used words in written German and in spoken it is likely to be even higher.

• Er hat gesagt, dass er um 10 anruft.
• He said that he will call at 10.
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• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Es ist klar, dass man Deutsch nicht in 2 Wochen lernen kann.
• It is obvious, that you can’t learn German in 2 weeks.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Ich glaube, dass es morgen regnet.
• I think, that it is going to rain today.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

Now, remember the words I mentioned that we could use to test which kind of that we’re looking at? It’s the, this or which. Neither of them works here. We would wind up with absolute nonsense.

Let’s try it with the last example:

• I think the/ this/ which is going to rain.

This is gibberish and it’s really confusing. And that’s about how confusing it is to mix up das and dass.

Now, is there something we can replace this “function”-that with, to check whether we need dass?
Well, in terms of meaning, not really. But we can replace it with other subordinating junk… uhm I mean.. conjunctions; like whether, when or if .

The meaning won’t be the same but we still have a grammatically correct statement, because all the words have the same grammatical function.

• Ich sage dir, dass/wann/ob ich heute komme.
• I tell you that/when/if I will come today.
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Now, these replacement tests are great if you have time, but it’s best if you try to develop a feeling for the different functions. It’s quite an important thing in language in general, and really understanding these concepts will help you get the gains you are looking for.
That said, let me tell you that even Germans misspell… for example my ex-girlfriend. She’s smart and pretty, but she uses das and dass randomly. And she also breaks hearts. But I digress.

So, let’s recap.
We’ve learned that the difference between das and dass is function.
Das used to refer or point to stuff, dass is used to connect actions.

“I tell you that that dress sucks.”

The first that connects the actions to think and to suck. We can replace it with why and still have a functioning sentence (with a different meaning, though). The second that refers to dress, and we can replace it with this or the.
So how would it be in German?
Exactly! The first one will be dass, the second one is das.
And here’s the ultimate mnemonic:

• das – points at S-tuff.
• dass – joins S-entence-S

And that’s it.

Now you should be ready for a …. dassilicious exercises.

Viel Erfolg :)

das vs dass – The Quiz

Sorry English language for the last example in the quiz :).
I couldn’t resist. We just have so many dass das in German.

• Ich denke, dass das Mädchen, das das  Eis isst, später Bauchschmerzen hat.
• I think that the girl who is eating the ice cream is in for a tummy ache later.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

And that’s it for today. This was our look at the difference between das and dass and I hope the explanations made sense.
Function is the key, remember. And getting a feeling for this function is helpful in many ways, throughout your language learning journey.
If you have any questions about the difference or the quiz,  just leave me a comment and we’ll clear it up.
Hope you liked it and see you next time.