was für

German

Pronunciation

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Determiner

was für

1. what; what kind of

   Was für Getränke habt ihr mitgebracht?

   What drinks have you brought?

   Du kannst dir vorstellen, was für ein Skandal das war.

   You can imagine what a scandal that was.

   Was für Bücher liest du?

   What kind of books do you read?

2. (in exclamation, with 'ein') (oh) what; (oh) such

   Was für ein Verrat! ― Oh what treason!

   Was für ein Schandfleck! ― What an eyesore!

Usage notes

• Some speakers consider was für lower register and may use a form of welcher instead. This would be perceived as normal, albeit slightly more formal, in examples like Welche Getränke habt ihr mitgebracht? (instead of Was für Getränke habt ihr mitgebracht?), but could be perceived as rather stilted or even humorous in others, like Welch ein Verrat! (instead of Was für ein Verrat!).
• The bare form was für is used before uncountable nouns and plural nouns. Countable singular nouns take the indefinite article: was für ein(e).
• Was für is followed by the syntactically expected case. The component für, though etymologically the same as the preposition, does not have any case governance effects. So in the example above, the prepositional phrase would be für einen Schandfleck with einen Schandfleck in the accusative. But with was, the für is just a particle with no influence on case and the phrase ein Schandfleck remains in the nominative case.
• The was and für do not have to be contiguous, for example: Was liest du für Bücher?

Synonyms

• welcher, welche, welches, welch

Adverb

was für

1. (youth slang) used to express strong rejection of a particular phrase in a statement by someone else; similar to English what do you mean

   Was für „immer“? Zweimal war ich da.

   What do you mean “always”? I went there twice.

   Was für „erster Platz“? Ihr werdet letzter, Alter!

   “First place”? What are you on about? You’re gonna be last, man!