Relative Clauses
Relative Clauses
Relative clauses add extra information about a noun, just like English 'who', 'which', or 'that' clauses — but German relative pronouns change form for case and always send the verb to the end of the clause.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Relative pronouns look like der/die/das, except a few forms
der Mann, der dort steht (the man who is standing there)
the man who is standing there
German relative pronouns are almost identical to the definite article (der, die, das, die-plural), which makes them easy to recognize but easy to under-decline if you're used to English's invariant 'who/which/that'. The pronoun's gender and number come from the noun it refers to (Mann → der, masculine), but its case comes from its job inside the relative clause. Full table — nominative: der/die/das/die; accusative: den/die/das/die; dative: dem/der/dem/denen; genitive: dessen/deren/dessen/deren. Only the dative plural (denen) and the four genitive forms (dessen/deren) differ from the plain article.
The verb goes to the very end
Das ist die Frau, die ich gestern getroffen habe.
That's the woman I met yesterday.
Relative clauses are subordinate clauses, so the conjugated verb moves to the last position — here habe lands at the very end, after the participle getroffen. English speakers habitually keep verb-second word order and need active practice sending the verb to the end. German also never drops the relative pronoun the way English does ('the woman I met', no 'whom'): German always states die explicitly, and the whole clause is set off with commas on both sides.
was as a relative pronoun after alles, nichts, etwas, and whole clauses
Das ist alles, was ich weiß.
That's all I know.
When the antecedent is an indefinite pronoun (alles, nichts, etwas, vieles), a superlative used as a noun (das Beste, was...), or an entire preceding clause rather than a specific noun, German switches from der/die/das to was — roughly matching English 'that/what' in similar contexts (Er kam zu spät, was mich ärgerte — 'He arrived late, which annoyed me').
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| der Mann, der... | dair mahn, dair | the man who... |
| die Frau, die... | dee frow, dee | the woman who... |
| das Kind, das... | dahs kint, dahs | the child that... |
| die Leute, die... | dee LOY-teh, dee | the people who... |
| der Mann, dem ich geholfen habe | dair mahn, dame ikh geh-HOL-fen HAH-beh | the man whom I helped |
| die Stadt, in der ich wohne | dee shtaht, in dair ikh VOH-neh | the city in which I live |
| das Buch, dessen Autor... | dahs bookh, DES-en OW-tor | the book whose author... |
| alles, was | AHL-es, vahs | everything that |