welcher / welche / welches (which)

Meaning. welch- is the question word "which". You use it to ask someone to choose one (or several) items out of a known, limited set: Welche Farbe magst du? ("Which colour do you like?") assumes there is a given range of colours to pick from. Compare was für ein ("what kind of"), which asks about type or quality, not selection.

It behaves like a der-word. welch- takes the same endings as the definite article (der/die/das) and must agree with the noun in gender, number and case.

• Welcher Bus faehrt zum Bahnhof? - masculine, nominative (subject).
• Welchen Film sehen wir? - masculine, accusative (object).
• Mit welchem Zug bist du gekommen? - masculine, dative after mit.
• In welcher Stadt wohnst du? - feminine, dative after in.

Word order. welch- + noun forms one question phrase that stands in first position; the conjugated verb comes second: Welche Jacke gehoert dir? In an indirect question the verb moves to the end: Ich weiss nicht, welche Jacke dir gehoert.

Without a noun. welch- can also stand alone as a pronoun when the noun is clear from context: Hier sind zwei Kleider. Welches nimmst du? ("Here are two dresses. Which one do you take?"). It still shows the gender and case of the noun it replaces.

Most common mistake. Do not leave welch- unchanged. The ending must follow the noun's gender and the case forced by the verb or preposition: it is welchen Kaffee moechtest du? (accusative), not welche Kaffee, and aus welchem Land? (dative after aus), not aus welche Land.

"welch-" is the question word "which"; it asks you to pick from a known set and takes der/die/das-style endings for the noun's gender, number and case.

welch- declines like der/die/das: welcher (m), welche (f), welches (n), welche (pl), and changes with the case (welchen, welchem, welcher ...).

"welch-" ist das Fragewort "which/welche"; es fragt nach einer Auswahl aus einer bekannten Menge und bekommt die Endungen wie der/die/das je nach Genus, Numerus und Kasus.