Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses

Summary and Examples

I. Introduction

• Relative clauses supply additional information about the nouns in a sentence.
• In German, the relative pronoun for people and things will be a form of der/das/die==> in particular, do not use wer (or wen or wem) to translate English who or whom:

• Relative pronouns may sometimes be omitted in English, but they cannot be omitted in German:

• The term “antecedent” is used to refer to the noun being referred to by a relative pronoun.  Thus in the above example,

II. Where to position the relative clause in the sentence

• This is easy: the relative clause always comes right after the noun it is describing.  Here are some examples. In each case, the relative clause is in bold print, and the noun or noun phrase it is describing is in italics. Note also that the relative clause is set off from the main clause by commas:

• There is one exception to the above rule: if placing the relative clause right after “its” noun in this way would leave the verb in the main clause dangling at the end of the sentence by itself, the resulting sentence would be awkward to comprehend. In such cases, the verb is usually moved in front of the relative clause.

III. Where to position the verb in the relative clause

• This is easy also: relative clauses are subordinate clauses. Consequently, the conjugated verb comes at the end of the relative clause.

IV. Nominative, Accusative and Dative Relative Pronouns

• Nominative, Accusative and Dative relative pronouns are normally forms of der/das/die, regardless of whether they refer to a person or a thing.  These differ from the forms of der/das/die which you have already learned only in the dative plural:

• The gender of the relative pronoun is the same as the gender of its antecedent (the noun to which it is referring). The case of the relative pronoun (Nominative, Accusative, Dative or Genitive) depends on its grammatical function in the relative clause. It does not depend on the grammatical function of the antecedent in the main clause. To make this clear, here is an example of how an antecedent in the nominative case (der Laden) can be referred to by a relative pronoun in the nominative, accusative or dative case:

• In the first case, the store is the subject of the action in the relative clause (it sells the gummi-bears), and hence is referred to by a relative pronoun in the nominative (der).
• In the second case, the store is the direct object of my love (I love it), and so is referred to by a relative pronoun in the accusative (den).
• In the third case, the store is the object of the dative verb “schulden” (to owe), and so is referred to by a relative pronoun in the dative case (dem).

V. Relative pronouns with prepositions

• In German, prepositions are inseparable from the nouns or pronouns they bring into a sentence. This applies also in relative clauses. Since they are prepositions, they will always come in front of the relative pronoun they are associated with. They will also determine the case of the relative
  pronoun as follows:
  • Following an accusative preposition, the relative pronoun will be accusative, following a dative preposition, the relative pronoun will be dative, following a genitive preposition, the relative pronoun will be genitive.

• • • In the first case, für is an accusative preposition and is thus followed by a relative pronoun in the accusative (die).
    • In the second case, mit is a dative preposition and is thus followed by a relative pronoun in the dative (der).
• • Following a two-way preposition the relative pronoun will be accusative if the action in the relative clause involves motion, and dative if the relative clause is describing the location where the action is taking place.

• • • In the first case, the classroom is the location in which learning German can take place ==> dative
    • In the second case, the relative clause is about motion into the classroom ==> accusative
  • If the two-way preposition is not describing motion/location but rather is part of a verb + preposition combination (as in “sprechen über” or “warten auf”), you need to know whether that particular preposition + verb combination is associated with accusative or dative.  If in doubt about this, your best guess is to choose the accusative.

1. 1. 1. Angst haben vor + Dative = to be afraid of
      2. erinnern an + Accusative = to remind (someone) of (something)

VI. Genitive Relative Pronouns

• The genitive relative pronouns mean “whose” and work slightly differently: once you know you are trying to say “whose,” you choose the correct genitive relative pronoun only according to the gender of its antecedent: dessen for masculine and neuter antecedents; deren for feminine and plural antecedents. The complete table of relative pronouns is thus:

• Some examples:

VII. The relative pronouns wer, wo & was [221 and above]

• It sometimes happens that the antecedent of the relative pronoun is an abstract concept or place, to which one cannot assign a gender, so that it becomes impossible to chose the appropriate form of der/das/die to use as the relative pronoun.  When the gender of the antecedent cannot be determined, or when there is no antecedent, wer, wo and was are used as the relative pronouns.
  • Wer never has an antecedent. It is used to mean whoever, the person who, or he/she who.

• • Wo means where, and is used when the antecedent is a place.  If the place has a proper name and no article (Berlin, Disneyland, Deutschland, Kroger), you must use wo to refer to it in a relative clause.  If the place has an article (die Schweiz, die Türkei, das Klassenzimmer), you can use wo or you can use in + the appropriate form of der/das/die.

• • Was has three uses:
    • Without an antecedent, it is used to mean what or whatever.

• • • Was is used to refer to indefinite nouns or pronouns such as alles, etwas, nichts, das Beste, das Schönste, das Neueste.  In these cases, the best translation is an optional that. It will be natural for you to remember to use was in these cases, since you will not be able to decide on a gender for words such as alles, which will remind you that you cannot use der/das/die.

• • • Was may refer back to a whole clause, in which case it can be translated as which, or which is something (that). Again, it will be natural for you to remember to use was in these cases, since you will not be able to decide on a gender for an entire clause, which will remind you that you cannot use der/das/die.

• • When a preposition is combined with wo (==>wohin, woher) or was used as described above, you must use a wo-compound.

VIII. Recognizing relative clauses

• Work backwards from the above!

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Practice Exercises

• In Hartmuts Zimmer Very basic practice to help you get used to the forms that relative clauses take. All the relative pronouns in these examples are in the Nominative (3 items–use the “weiter” button to navigate between exercises)
• Wer bin ich? Practice Nominative, Accusative and Dative Relative Pronouns by filling in the blanks with the appropriate Relative Pronouns; then guess the person being described (7 items–use the “weiter” button to navigate between exercises)
• Wer bin ich? (mit Präpositionen) Practice Relative Pronouns with (some) Prepositions by filling in the blanks with the appropriate Relative Pronouns; then guess the person being described (2 items–use the “weiter” button to navigate between exercises)
• Professor Blume Practice all aspects of relative pronouns with this exercise. All of the sentences have to do with animals and plants. Some of them are rather difficult, so don’t be discouraged if you find this unusually hard. You will get full explanatory feedback once you click on the right answer, so if you don’t succeed right away, keep trying 🙂

Practice Exercises on Other Sites

• Cumulative Practice Created by Dr. Olaf Böhlke. Fill in the correct relative pronouns in a series of statements. Includes all four cases, relative pronouns with prepositions, and indefinite relative pronouns (wer/wo/was). Click on A, B, C at the top to see all 30 items. Note the instructions for seeing feedback for each item; you may need to enter an intentionally incorrect response (e.g. das instead of der) to understand how the feedback works. Click on T/Tipp to see hints!

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Explanations and Examples

I. Introduction

Relative clauses supply additional information about the nouns in a sentence.

Here are some examples of simple sentences without any relative clauses:

Here are the same sentences with relative clauses (in bold print) added to provide more information about some of the nouns, which, in this case, helps you see just how romantic the above scenario could be…:

Click here for more examples.

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Contrastive grammar

English distinguishes between relative pronouns referring to people (who and whom) and relative pronouns referring to things or concepts (that or which).  In German, the relative pronoun for people and things will be a form of der/das/die ==> do not use wer (or wen or wem) to translate English who or whom:

Also, relative pronouns may sometimes be omitted in English, but they cannot be omitted in German:

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Terminology: “antecedent”

The term “antecedent” is used to refer to the noun being referred to by a relative pronoun.  Thus in the most recent example,

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What you need to know:

• Where to position the relative clauses in the sentence (very easy!)
• Where to position the verb in the relative clause (very easy: the verb always comes at the end of the relative clause)
• How to choose the correct relative pronoun.  This will be the subject of the bulk of this module, beginning with the section on Nominative, Accusative and Dative Relative Pronouns.

When you are reading or hearing German, you are also going to need to be able to go backwards, i.e. to interpret relative clauses by

• recognizing them
• identifying the antecedent of the relative pronoun (i.e. the noun which the relative clause is describing)

This will be discussed at more length at the end of this explanation, but is something students are often able to do automatically, even before having “officially” studied relative clauses.

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II. Where to position the relative clauses in the sentence

This is easy: the relative clause always comes right after the noun it is describing.  Here are some examples. In each case, the relative clause is in bold print, and the noun or noun phrase it is describing is in italics. Note also that the relative clause is set off from the main clause by commas:

In the last example, note that the relative pronoun refers grammatically to the first noun (“Brot”) in the noun phrase (“ein Brot mit Butter und Nutella”) – this is why the relative pronoun is das (as in “das Brot”) and not die (as in “die Butter/die Nutella”). This will happen when the relative clause refers to a noun phrase containing more than one noun. You will most likely get such sentences right by instinct ==> please don’t let this detail worry you too much!

Click here for more examples.

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A minor exception: “dangling verbs”

There is one exception to the above rule: if placing the relative clause right after “its” noun in this way would leave the verb in the main clause dangling at the end of the sentence by itself, the resulting sentence would be awkward to comprehend. In such cases, the verb is usually moved in front of the relative clause.

Here are some examples of sentences that would leave a verb dangling by itself in this awkward way if the relative clause were placed right after its antecedent:

The verb is thus moved in front of the relative clause as follows:

Click here for more examples.

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III. Where to position the verb in the relative clause

This is easy also: relative clauses are subordinate clauses (eventually, you will be able to click here for more information…). Consequently, the conjugated verb comes at the end of the relative clause. Click here for some more details on this.  The previous examples are printed again below, this time with the verb at the end of the relative clause in italics.  Note that where the verb is in two parts, the conjugated verb comes after the “generic” one [infinitives or past participles are “generic” in the sense that they are not conjugated to agree with the subject of the action]:

Click here for more examples.

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IV. Nominative, Accusative and Dative Relative Pronouns

As mentioned in the Introduction, Nominative, Accusative and Dative relative pronouns are normally forms of der/das/die, regardless of whether they refer to a person or a thing.  These differ from the forms of der/das/die which you have already learned only in the dative plural:

The gender of the relative pronoun is the same as the gender of its antecedent (the noun to which it is referring). The case of the relative pronoun (Nominative, Accusative, Dative or Genitive) depends on its grammatical function in the relative clause. It does not depend on the grammatical function of the antecedent in the main clause. To make this clear, here is an example of how an antecedent in the nominative case (der Laden) can be referred to by a relative pronoun in the nominative, accusative or dative case:

• In the first case, the store is the subject of the action in the relative clause (it sells the gummi-bears), and hence is referred to by a relative pronoun in the nominative (der).
• In the second case, the store is the direct object of my love (I love it), and so is referred to by a relative pronoun in the accusative (den).
• In the third case, the store is the object of the dative verb “schulden” (to owe), and so is referred to by a relative pronoun in the dative case (dem).

Click here for more examples.

Structured Practice (Action Mazes)

Hartmuts Zimmer This is an “action maze” designed to take you step by step through the tasks involved in choosing a relative pronoun.

Hartmuts Zimmer 2 More practice of the same sort.

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V. Relative pronouns with prepositions

Click here if you need to review prepositions in general!

The preposition always precedes the relative pronoun

In German, prepositions are inseparable from the nouns or pronouns they bring into a sentence. This applies also in relative clauses. Since they are prepositions, they will always come in front of the relative pronoun they are associated with. They will also determine the case of the relative pronoun; this will be discussed below.

In English, one needs to be reminded by one’s teacher to keep the preposition in front of the relative pronoun; in informal speaking, one is much more likely to hear the above sentences as:

In German, it would be unthinkable to separate the preposition
from its relative pronoun in this way: you will never hear anyone
do this in speaking or writing.

Click here for a barely relevant and slightly rude joke on this topic.

The preposition determines the case of “its” relative pronoun

Following an accusative preposition, the relative pronoun will be accusative, following a dative preposition, the relative pronoun will be dative, following a genitive preposition, the relative pronoun will be genitive.

• In the first two cases, ohne and für are accusative prepositions and are thus followed by a relative pronoun in the accusative (die).
• In the third case, mit is a dative preposition and is thus followed by a relative pronoun in the dative (der).
• In the fourth case, trotz is a genitive preposition and is thus followed by a relative pronoun in the genitive (deren).  Genitive relative pronouns are discussed in more detail in the next section.

Following a two-way preposition the relative pronoun will be accusative if the action in the relative clause involves motion, and dative if the relative clause is describing the location where the action is taking place.

• In the first case, the classroom is the location in which learning German can take place ==> dative
• In the second case, the relative clause is about motion into the classroom ==> accusative
• In the third case, the map is the location where one can see Germany ==> dative
• In the fourth case, the relative clause is about the motion of sitting down on a French book ==> accusative
• In the fifth case, the French book is the location where we are seated ==> dative

If the two-way preposition is not describing motion/location but rather is part of a verb + preposition combination (as in “sprechen über” or “warten auf”), you need to know whether that particular preposition + verb combination is associated with accusative or dative.  If in doubt about this, your best guess is to choose the accusative.

1. Angst haben vor + Dative = to be afraid of
2. erinnern an + Accusative = to remind (someone) of (something)
3. antworten auf + Accusative = to answer (a question) [the preposition “auf” will always refer to the question being answered; the person being answered is referred to in the dative without a preposition: Sie antwortet dem Lehrer auf die Frage]
4. trinken auf + Accusative = to drink to (someone or something)

The combination “preposition + relative pronoun” may sometimes be replaced by a wo-compound.  Click here for more information

Structured Practice (Action Mazes)

Hartmuts Photos

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VI. Genitive Relative Pronouns

The genitive relative pronouns mean “whose” and work slightly differently: once you know you are trying to say “whose,” you choose the correct genitive relative pronoun only according to the gender of its antecedent: dessen for masculine and neuter antecedents; deren for feminine
and plural antecedents.  The complete table of relative pronouns is thus:

Here are some examples:

In the first two cases, the antecedent of whose is Michael Fassbender ==> use dessen, since he is masculine. It does not change anything that in the first example (dessen Mutter…), Mutter is feminine and in the second example (dessen magnetische Persönlichkeit…), Persönlichkeit is feminine: the relative pronoun will be dessen so long as the antecedent is masculine or neuter.

In the third and fourth cases, the antecedent of whose is Oprah Winfrey ==> use deren, since she is feminine.  It does not change anything that in the relative clause, her interviews are the subject (they helped many people) in the third example, and her books are the object (I would like to read them all) in the fourth example: the relative pronoun will be deren so long as the antecedent is feminine or plural.

In the fifth case, the antecedent of whose is again Oprah Winfrey==> again use deren.  Note that in this case, the genitive relative pronoun is preceded by an accusative preposition (durch), but this does not change the fact that you will use deren as the relative pronoun. [It does mean, however, that the noun Buchclub is in the accusative.]

==> Genitive relative pronouns are actually much simpler than the others in the sense that, once you have realized that you want to say “whose,” all you have to do to pick the correct relative pronoun is to figure out the correct gender of the antecedent, in order to choose between dessen and deren.

Structured Practice (Action Mazes)

Star Wars This is an action maze designed to take you step by step through the process of choosing a relative pronoun that may be combined with a preposition and/or that may be in the
genitive case.

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VII. The relative pronouns wer, wo & was

Before reading on, you should review the information in the first section regarding the fact that the relative pronoun is normally a form of der/das/die, even if it refers to a person. This section describes the exceptions to that rule, all of which have one thing in common: it sometimes happens that the antecedent of the relative pronoun is an abstract concept or place, to which one cannot assign a gender, so that it becomes impossible to chose the appropriate form of der/das/die to use as the relative pronoun.  When the gender of the antecedent cannot be determined,
or when there is no antecedent, wer, wo and was are used as the relative pronouns.

Wer

Wer never has an antecedent. It is used to mean whoever, the person who, or he/she who in sentences such as:

Note that in each case, there is no antecedent for wer.

Click here for more examples.

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Wo

Wo means where, and is used when the antecedent is a place. If the place has a proper name and no article (Berlin, Disneyland, Deutschland, Kroger), you must use wo to refer to it in a relative clause.  If the place has an article (die Schweiz, die Türkei, das Klassenzimmer), you can use wo or you can use in + the appropriate form of der/das/die:

Click here for more examples.

Click here for information on some other uses of wo in colloquial speech, especially in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

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Was

Was has three uses:

(i) Without an antecedent, it is used to mean what or whatever.

Click here for more examples.

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(ii) Was is used to refer to indefinite nouns or pronouns such as alles, etwas, nichts, das Beste, das Schönste, das Neueste. In these cases, the best translation is an optional that. It will be natural for you to remember to use was in these cases, since you will not be able to decide on a gender for words such as alles, which will remind you that you cannot use der/das/die.

Click here for more examples.

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(iii) Finally, was may refer back to a whole clause, in which case it can be translated as which, or which is something (that). Again, it will be natural for you to remember to use was in these cases, since you will not be able to decide on a gender for an entire clause, which will remind you that you cannot use der/das/die.

Click here for more examples.

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Wo-Compounds

Wo-compounds must be used when a preposition is combined with wo (==>wohin, woher) or was used as described above.

Click here for more examples.

Wo-compounds may also be substituted for preposition + der/das/die when the antecedent is not human, but this is almost always optional.  We will want you to be able to understand this when you see it, but will not expect you to do it yourself unless you want to.  Click here for more information.

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Recognizing relative clauses

To do this, just work backwards from your knowledge of relative clauses.  Knowing that a clause is a relative clause is very helpful in understanding a sentence in two ways:

• You will know that the relative clause (normally) describes the noun just preceding it.
• You can first ignore the relative clause and figure out what the main clause means, and then go back and figure out what the relative clause is telling you about the noun just preceding it.

Here are the keys to recognizing relative clauses:

• Relative clauses follow the noun they are describing, and are set off from the main clause by commas.
• As you will have seen in the examples above, relative clauses are often at the end of a sentence, but they can also just as well come right in the middle of a main clause. The relative clause provides information about the noun it refers to, and then the main clause continues.
• A relative clause contains at least a subject and a verb (which will always be at the end of the clause).  This distinguishes it from an apposition, which does not contain a verb.  The distinction is not crucial for comprehension purposes, as both relative clauses and appositions serve
  the same basic purpose of describing the noun just preceding them, but here are some examples:

• A clause beginning with a form of der/das/die not immediately followed by a noun [or with a preposition + a form of der/das/die not immediately followed by a noun], and ending with a verb, must be a relative clause.

Things work slightly differently if a relative clause begins with wer, wo, was, or a wo-compound, since then the relative clause often is not referring to a noun just preceding it.  In order to interpret such clauses, you should refer to the explanation above of the relative pronouns wer, wo & was.

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