German article question in a sentence

[domas118]

Can someone explain to me the grammar of the articles "das der" in the sentence "Das der Doktor kommt aus der Klinik?". It would be appreciated a lot.

[Heike333145]

Hello :-) The sentence is not correct.

"Der Doktor kommt aus der Klinik" would be a complete, correct sentence.

[domas118]

But I actually got that sentence, which I described in the post above. It was a question sentence, forgot to mention.

[Heike333145]

This structure is not possible as a question.

"Das der Doktor kommt aus der Klinik?" is not possible.

It could be an abbreviated question; for example:

"(Du meinst,) dass der Doktor aus der Klinik kommt?"

But in this case, it would not be the article "das", but the conjunction "dass" (with double "s"). Edit: Oh! --> And the word order would be different, of course!

Where did you see that sentence? What was said or written before it?

[domas118]

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4382565/Is-that-the-doctor-from-the-clinic

Here is the link to it, instead of "Artzt", I typed "Doktor", and it got accepted. In the description, I forgot to add "Ist" at the beggining of the sentence.

[Heike333145]

This is hilarious: This "Ist" changes everything! And the word order is totally different from your OP sentence, which I'm copying here:

"Das der Doktor kommt aus der Klinik?"

"Ist das der Doktor, der aus der Klinik kommt?"
means
"Is that the doctor who is leaving the hospital?"
(Please note the word order!)

And the actual Duolingo sentence is:
"Is that the doctor from the clinic?" -
"Ist das der Arzt aus der Klinik?"

In this case, the explanation given by judith applies: This "das" means "that" or "which".

[judith458282]

"Das" can also be "that" or "which" Does that make any sense with the rest of the text?

Ist das das billigster das Sie haben?

Is that the cheapest that you have?

[Heike333145]

You are right, but this "das" (meaning "that" or "which") cannot be applied in the sentence stated in the OP because the sentence structure would not allow it.

Your sentence "Ist das das billigste, das Sie haben?", transferred to a masculine noun (e.g. "der Herd"), would be "Ist das der billigste, den Sie haben?"

In that way, a sentence like "Ist das der Doktor, der aus der Klinik kommt?" would be correct. But the word order given in the OP is different.