welcher

See also: Welcher

English

Alternative forms

• welsher (UK)

Etymology

From welch +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

welcher (plural welchers)

1. One who welches.
2. (British, offensive slang) A Welshman or person of Welsh descent.

Translations

Translations

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: maksamatta jättäjä French: please add this translation if you can German: Spitzbube (de) m (dated), Gauner (de) m, Zechpreller (de) m, Schwindler (de) m Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: please add this translation if you can Thai: please add this translation if you can

German

Etymology

From Middle High German welich, from Old High German welih, wilih, from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz. Compare English which.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛlçər/, [ˈvɛl.çɐ], [ˈvɛʎ-], [ˈvɛɪ̯-], [ʋ-]

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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Determiner

welcher

1. (interrogative) which; what

   Welche Farbe hat dein Kleid?

   What colour is your dress?

   Welches Buch in diesem Regal hast du am öftesten gelesen?

   Which book on this shelf have you read most often?

2. (relative, literary) which

   Er vergaß, die letzte Kugel aus dem Lauf zu nehmen, welcher Fehler ihn das Leben kosten würde.

   He forgot to remove the last bullet from the barrel, a mistake which would cost him his life.

Pronoun

welcher

1. (interrogative) which (one)

   Hier sind zwei Jacken, welche ist deine?

   There are two jackets here, which one is yours?

2. (relative, literary) that; which; who; whom

   Der Mann, welchen sie als ihren Nachbarn erkannte, lag tot auf dem Bürgersteig.

   The man, whom she recognized to be her neighbour, was lying dead on the pavement.

3. (indefinite) some (an unspecified amount of)

   Soll ich Butter mitbringen oder ist noch welche im Kühlschrank?

   Shall I bring butter or is there still some in the fridge?

Usage notes

• When used as an interrogative determiner, some speakers may consider welcher rather formal and may use was für instead, e.g. Was für eine Farbe hat dein Kleid? instead of Welche Farbe hat dein Kleid?
• When welcher isn't used as a determiner followed directly by a noun (Welche Farbe ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?) and is directly followed by the verb sein, it is mostly used in neutral form welches for all genders and plural (Welches ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?). When it agrees with the gender and number, it is usually meant as one from a number of given options (Welche (von diesen) ist deine Lieblingsfarbe?)
• Welcher as a relative pronoun is virtually never used in the vernacular. It occurs more often in literary German, but overusing it is a typical trait of a pretentious style (generally corrected by editors). The normal relative pronoun in all registers of German is der and its forms.
• Welcher and its forms may be used avoid a doubled word. For example

  Das Lied, welches das Kind vortrug, wurde vor langer Zeit geschrieben.

avoids das das. The welches version would still not be preferred in general though.

• German does not distinguish between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses and relies solely on context to determine which is meant. (See the usage notes at which.) Thus der and its forms are still preferred when English prefers "which":

  Paul schenkt sein Auto, das noch neu ist, seiner Tochter.

  Paul is giving his car, which is still new, to his daughter.

Declension

Declension of welcher
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
nominative	welcher	welche	welches	welche
genitive	welches welchen[1]	welcher	welches welchen[1]	welcher
dative	welchem	welcher	welchem	welchen
accusative	welchen	welche	welches	welche

References

1. https://www.deutschplus.net/pages/Fragepronomen_welcher

Further reading

• “welcher” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “welcher”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891