# erstere

erstere is a German adjective meaning “former”.

## Meanings

1. former (first of aforementioned two items)
2. first (first of aforementioned three or more items)

## Examples

- Joan und Jane sind Schwestern. Erstere ist Pianistin. — Joan and Jane are sisters. The former is a pianist.
- Ich denke, von deinen zwei Ratschlägen werde ich den ersteren vorziehen. — Of your two suggestions, I think I prefer the former.
- Ich ziehe Nō dem Kabuki vor, weil ich ersteres für eleganter halte als letzteres. — I prefer Noh to Kabuki because I find the former to be more elegant than the latter.

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Sources: Meanings and forms from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR).
URL: https://wordwide.space/de-en/wort/erstere