Asking Who
To ask who someone is, use the interrogative wer (who). Wer ist das? means “Who is that?”
Wer ist der Mann? Der Mann ist Herr Schmidt.Who is the man? The man is Mr. Smith.Wer ist das Mädchen? Das Mädchen ist Petra.Who is the little girl? The little girl is Petra.Wer ist die Frau? Die Frau ist Professorin Klein.Who is the woman? The woman is Professor Klein.Wer sind die Kinder? Die Kinder sind Karl und Monika.Who are the children? The children are Karl and Monika.)
Wer is slightly different from the other question words in that it can change form to show case, like the personal pronouns. We'll come back to this later in the chapter.
Be careful of forming questions from sentences with two subjects. The question words take singular verbs. If two people are the subject, the question you ask is still wer. But, just like the English word “who,” the German word wer is singular. The same thing is true of was (what). Examples: (a) Wer ist da? (Who is there?) Peter und Karl sind da. (Peter and Karl are there.) (b) Was ist da? (What is there?) Das Hotel und die Post sind da. (The hotel and the post office are there.)
