Relative Clauses
தொடர்பு வாக்கியங்கள்
German attaches extra information to a noun with a relative clause, introduced by der/die/das and verb-final — while Tamil skips relative pronouns entirely and folds the extra information into a participle placed before the noun.
Grammar Comparison
இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு
After the noun with a pronoun vs. before the noun with none
der Mann, der dort steht (the man who is standing there — der + verb pushed to the end)
அங்கே நிற்கும் மனிதன் (there-standing man — no relative pronoun, and the clause comes BEFORE the noun)
This is a real structural split, not just a surface difference. German relative clauses follow the noun and use a relative pronoun (der/die/das, matching the noun's gender) with the verb pushed to the end, following the subordinate-clause pattern you already know. Tamil has no relative pronoun at all — it converts the whole relative clause into a participle (நிற்கும், 'standing') and places that participle directly in front of the noun, like a long adjective. When turning a Tamil relative-participle sentence into German, expect to flip the entire clause from before the noun to after it, and insert a pronoun that doesn't exist in the Tamil original.
Vocabulary
சொற்கள்
| German | Pronunciation | Tamil | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| der (masc. subject) | dair | எவன்evan | who (referring to a masculine subject) |
| die (fem. subject) | dee | எவள்evaḷ | who (referring to a feminine subject) |
| das (neut. subject) | dahs | எதுedhu | which (referring to a neuter subject) |
| den (masc. object) | dayn | எவனைevaṉai | whom (masculine object) |
| dem (dative) | daym | எவனுக்குevaṉukku | to whom |
| dessen (masc./neut. genitive) | DES-en | யாருடையyāruḍaiya | whose |