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Second sentence of Jahresbericht Medizinischer Dienst: Mehr Todesfälle durch Behandlungsfehler, tagesschau.de, 20 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
97 of them had fatal consequences, as current statistics show.
Word for word: 97 of them had deadly consequences, shows a current statistic.
Used in news or report style to state how many of a group of cases ended fatally, attributing the figure to a recent statistic.
A main clause stating a fact in the preterite ('hatten') is followed by a reporting clause 'zeigt eine aktuelle Statistik' placed after the comma with the finite verb first, a common pattern when the source of a claim follows the claim itself. 'von ihnen' uses the dative after 'von'; 'tödliche Folgen' is a plural noun phrase with no determiner, so the adjective takes a strong ending.
Rules at work(5)
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hatten
'hatten' is the simple past of 'haben', the normal narrative tense in written reports.
The simple past is the written narrative past. In speech it survives mainly in sein, haben and the modals, where hatte and war are far commoner than the perfect forms.
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von ihnen
'von' governs the dative, so the pronoun appears as 'ihnen'.
Aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu always take the dative. Several of them contract with the article: von dem becomes vom, zu der becomes zur.
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tödliche Folgen
With no determiner before the plural noun the adjective carries the strong ending marking number and case.
With no article in front of it the adjective has to carry the case marking itself, so it takes the endings the definite article would have had, with the exception of the masculine and neuter genitive singular.
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eine aktuelle Statistik
After the indefinite article 'eine' the adjective takes the mixed ending -e in nominative feminine.
After ein, kein and a possessive, the adjective takes strong endings exactly where the article shows nothing, which is the masculine nominative and the neuter nominative and accusative, and weak endings everywhere else.
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eine ... Statistik
The feminine gender of 'Statistik' determines the article and adjective endings.
Every German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender is a property of the word rather than of the thing it names, and it decides the form of every article, adjective and pronoun that refers to it, so it has to be learned with the noun.
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Words(10)
- 97
ninety-seven
numeralA1
- von
from, of, by
prepositionA1governs dative
Used here to mark authorship, like 'by' in English credits.
- ihnen
them, to them
pronounA1personal
- haben
to have
verbA1haben, hatte, hat gehabtmit habenirregular
As an auxiliary it forms the perfect tenses of most verbs.
- tödlich
fatal, deadly, lethal
adjectiveB2tödlicher, am tödlichsten
- die Folge
consequence, result, episode (of a series)
nounB1pl. Folgengen. Folgemixed declension
- zeigen
to show, to point
verbA2zeigen, zeigte, hat gezeigtmit habenweak
In 'sich zeigen + adjective' it means 'to appear/prove to be', not literally 'to show something'.
- ein
a, an, one
determinerA1indefinite
The form einer here is dative feminine singular, not the pronoun meaning 'one'.
- aktuell
current, topical
adjectiveB1aktueller, am aktuellsten
Means 'current/up-to-date', not 'actually'; that false friend is 'tatsächlich'.
- die Statistik
statistics, statistic
nounB1pl. Statistikengen. Statistikmixed declension