was meaning and definition in german
Pronoun
Frequency: 
The genitive case, and the dative case if necessary for clearness, can be paraphrased by means of welcher Sache (“what thing”). Possessive genitives are more commonly paraphrased with wovon (“of what”).The colloquial was meaning "something" can only be the first word in a sentence if followed by an adjective: Was Wichtiges fehlt noch. (“Something important is missing.”) Otherwise the full form etwas must be used: Etwas fehlt noch. (“Something is missing.”) The reason for this is that the latter sentence could be misinterpreted as a question if was were used.
Was is not commonly used with prepositions, but replaced with pronominal adverbs containing wo-. Hence: Womit hast du das gemacht? (“With what did you do that?”), instead of Mit was hast du das gemacht?.
Was was also used attributively, as in auf was Weise, zu was Ende, was Volck, was Volcks, was Raths, but Adelung criticised this usage.
- interrogative what Was machst du heute?
- What are you doing today?
- relative which (referring to the entire preceding clause) Sie tanzte gut, was er bewunderte.
- She was a good dancer, which he admired.
- relative that, which (referring to das, alles, etwas, nichts, and neuter substantival adjectives) Das ist alles, was ich will.
- That's all that I want.
- That's the best that could have happened to me.
- relative, colloquial that, which (referring to neuter singular nouns, instead of standard das) Siehst du das weiße Haus, was renoviert wird?
- Do you see that white house, which is being renovated?
- indefinite, colloquial something, anything (instead of standard etwas) Ich hab was gefunden.
- I've found something.
