どのｖｓどれ- can I use them interchangeably?


Currently going through my textbook and we are learning about どの

例えば: サントスさんはどの人ですか。。あの背が高くて、髪が黒い人です

This sounded awfully familiar to me. So I went back and remembered we learned
どれ too.

例えば:ミラーさんの傘はどれですか。。。あの青い傘です

It says in the grammar book we use どの with a noun. Could this be the
difference?

for example can we say:

サントスさんはどれひとですか

Im not sure why, i am not a japanese speaker or an expert but this just sounds
really really weird to me. For some reason サントスさんはどれですか, seems to sound better
and seems to imply the same thing.

Is there a way I can rewrite ミラーさんの傘はどれですか using どの?

Any insight is appreciated.




Both translate to "which" in English but are interchangeable in 0% of cases.

**どの**

Your grammar book says どの is used with a noun. That is exactly the difference.
Notice your first example:

> サントスさんは **どの人** ですか

The question asks "which person is Santos?" as opposed to just "which is
Santos?" Notice the 人 is placed after どの. This is important; you cannot remove
the noun after どの:

> × サントスさんは **どの** ですか - Wrong! Do not use!

So, どの means "which object?" and never just "which?"

**どれ**

どれ, on the other hand, is used to ask just "which?", not "which object?" It
also stands for the type of noun you're referring to. Looking at your own
second example:

> ミラーさんの傘は **どれ** ですか。

This phrase translates to "which is Mira's umbrella?" Notice there is no noun
after どれ. You cannot add one if you wanted to. That means this sentence is
grammatically incorrect:

> × サントスさんは **どれひと** ですか

That isn't correct because どれ can't be used in combination with another noun
to mean "which object?" You can, however, do it this way:

> ○ サントスさんは **どのひと** ですか

(By the way, in general, it is better to use だれ (who) when asking about a
person rather than どれ (which), but there are exceptions, like if you're
looking at a picture full of people and you're asking which is Santos.)

* * *

In addition, the differences between どの and どれ as I described can be applied
to その・それ, あの・あれ, and この・これ.

> それはミラーさんの傘です。- That is Mira's umbrella. その傘はミラーさんの傘です。- That umbrella is
> Mira's umbrella.

