Usage of “welches”?

Question

I came across the following sentence: > Welches ist die zuständige Behörde? I wondered why it is *welches* and not *welche* (using feminine for Behörde). A quick search in Google seems to indicate that *welches* is correct (returns many many more results), but why?

Answer 1

Welches is not properly positioned to be an adjective modifying Behöde.

That would be "Welche Behöde ist ..."

I would translate it simply as "Which is the appropriate office..." "Welches" is a non-gender-specific noun, as is "which". I choose "which" over "which one" because that is true to the word form used in the German. Which and welches are both nouns. in "which one", which is an adjective modifying "one". Having said all that, going from English to German, I would translate both "Which is..." and "Which one is..." as "Welches ist ...", so it's just a picky point anyhow.

Answer 2

Welche should be correct in this case, because it is "die Behörde". Welches is sounds more colloquial here but is used a lot. You would translate it with "which one" in this case. "Which one is the responsible office?"