Difference between Das and Dass? (german?)?

Question

What are the rules to using those two words?

They can both mean "that", so when can one be used, and when can the other?

Answer 1

Man muss bedenken das sich die Rechtschreibung in Deutschland dauernt ändert.

Danke ich wusste dass vorher nicht.

English is so much easier than german. There is onlye The and That. German is complex, even for germans. ^^

Answer 2

Flower does not have it correctly, sorry. The sentence "Das musst du tun" would also be written with "Das", not "dass".

On the other hand, it's true that normally "das" simply translates to "the" while "dass" translates to "that". But only when "that" is used in subordinate clauses, like

I told him that the car is red -> Ich sagte ihm, dass das Auto rot ist.

And even this does not apply in all cases. If the subordinate clause starts with "that" but this "that" could be replaced with "the" or "which", it would be "das" again:

The car that I saw was red -> Das Auto, das ich sah, war rot.

(that could be replaced with "which" so it must be "das")

Edit: Flower, ich lebe zur Zeit in Bremen. Dein Deutsch ist voller Fehler, jedenfalls schriftlich, ich würde an deiner Stelle keine Ratschläge erteilen, tut mir leid.

Answer 3

We learned a little sentence for that: Kann man jenes, dieses, welches sagen, darf "das" keinen Buckel tragen!"

Meaning, if you can substitute "jenes", "dieses" or "welches" for the word "das", it is really the word "das", and not "daß".

Literally the sentence goes: If you can say ...., "das" is not allowed to have a hunchback.

Hope that helped. Good luck with it. It is not an easy thing to accomplish even for Germans when they first learn to write. So keep up the good work!

Answer 4

Natural Born Kieler is right, as usual, but maybe a little confusing.

When "das" means "that" (as opposed to "the"), it means "that thing" (or that person, since some people are neuter too)

The child "that person" I saw, is seven.

Das Kind, das ich gesehen habe, ist sieben.

"Dass" always means the less meaningful "that"--the "that" that just tells you how two parts of the sentence are related. It basically means "the fact that" but you wouldn't normally want to add in "the fact". (Also you don't always need "that" in English when you need "dass" in German.)

The child told me (the fact that) he was seven.

Das Kind hat mir gesagt, dass er sieben war.

Answer 5

1. Das = neuter definite article, e.g. das Auto, das Haus, das Buch, etc.

2. Das = that,  as in Das ist eine tolle Geschichte (that is a good story)

3. Dass or daß = that, as in Ich weiß bestimmt, daß die Bahn um neun Uhr ankommt (I know for certain that the train arrives at nine).