"Relative pronouns” may not ring any bells for you. It may sound complicated, but in English, you already know what they are without realizing it. Don’t worry, we’re here to make German relative pronouns or Relativepronomen easy!
What is a Relative Pronoun?
A relative pronoun is intended to connect two sentences that contain the same noun or subject. They replace the original noun. In English, our relative pronouns are: who, whose, which, that, whom and where.
Examples:
Sounds simple, enough right? But, when you get to the moment, you may be struggling to figure out which relative pronoun to use!
In German, there are two forms of relative pronouns: the definite articles which are der, die, and das, and welcher in its declined form.
There are some others, but we’ll get to that later! All of the relative pronouns will mean either that, who, whom, whose, or which. But they change according to the case in which they’re used.
The definite articles decline exactly the same as when they’re used as relative pronouns. But, it can still be a little tricky.
Here’s a quick overview
Nominative Case
| Masculine | der |
| Feminine | die |
| Neuter | das |
| Plural | die |
| Meaning | he/ she/ it/ that/ who/ which |
Accusative Case
Masculine | den |
Feminine | die |
Neuter | das |
Plural | die |
Meaning | he/ she/ it/ that/ who/ which |
Dative
Masculine | dem |
Feminine | der |
Neuter | dem |
Plural | denen |
Meaning | he/ she/ it/ that/ who/ which |
Genitive
Masculine | dessen |
Feminine | deren |
Neuter | dessen |
Plural | deren |
Meaning | whose |
Via Flickr
1) Der
Der is the masculine pronoun, so it will only be used with “masculine” nouns. It can be used to talk about people or things.
For example, these are masculine nouns:
der Mann (man)
der Computer (self-explanatory)
der Käse (cheese)
der Hund (dog)
But, when used as a relative pronoun, der can change from den to dem to dessen, depending on the case in which it’s used.
For example, if it’s the direct object, it will change to den (Accusative case). If it’s the indirect object, it will change to dem (Dative case), and if it’s used like ‘whose’, it will be deren or dessen (Genitive case) .
2) Die
Die is the feminine pronoun, so it will only be used with “feminine” nouns. Examples of feminine nouns are:
die Frau (woman)
die Katze (cat)
die Blume (flower)
die Kleidung (clothes/clothing)
As a relative pronoun, die changes from der to deren, depending on the case. Die is also used for plural nouns, so for example, a masculine noun can be used with die when there’s more than one.
Example: der Mann (1-man) and die Manner (plural-men). So die will change to der only when it’s the indirect object (Dative case), and if it’s used like ‘whose’, it will be deren. (Genitive case)3) Das
Lastly, das is the neutral pronoun, so you will often see it linked to things/objects, but it will also be paired with people too!
das Mädchen (girl)
das Hemd (shirt)
das Kleid (dress)
das Haar (hair)
As a relative pronoun, das changes from dem to dessen, depending on the case. Das will remain the same in the Accusative case, but it will change to dem as the indirect object (Dative case), and dessen if used as the word ‘whose’ (Genitive case).
4) Welcher
Welcher in German means ‘which’, but as a relative pronoun, it will translate to ‘whom’ in the sentence. And it can be used if you don’t want to repeat a definite article. For example,
Example:
BETTER:
Here, you can change the relative pronoun from die to welche if you don’t want to repeat the same word. Or it can be used as the word ‘whom’ or ‘whose’.
Welcher will decline the same way as the relative pronouns do except for the Genitive or possessive case. Check it out here:
Nominative Case
Masculine | welcher |
Feminine | welche |
Neuter | welches |
Plural | welche |
Meaning | whom |
Accusative
Masculine | welchen |
Feminine | welche |
Neuter | welches |
Plural | welche |
Meaning | whom |
Dative
Masculine | welchem |
Feminine | welcher |
Neuter | welchem |
Plural | welchen |
Meaning | whom |
Genitive
Masculine | dessen |
Feminine | deren |
Neuter | dessen |
Plural | deren |
Meaning | whose/whom |
Welcher examples:
German’s Four Cases
But, in order to use the relative pronouns correctly in German, we need to figure out what to do in all the different cases. We know, the cases can be confusing (too confusing, in fact!)
A case in grammar is just about the function of the noun in the sentence, and when its function changes, the verbs and pronouns also change, and the words all connect together differently.
There can be a lot of different parts to remember, so let’s try to make it easy for you.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the different cases in German and how the relative pronouns change for each case!
Nominative case
This case is probably the easiest one to get your head around because the noun is in place of the subject.
Here the cat and the dog are the subjects. In a nominative case, the definite articles/relative pronouns will be in their base form.
Accusative case
Remember: only ‘der’ words will change in this case. ‘Das’ and ‘die’ words remain the same. The accusative case focuses on when the noun is receiving the action from the verb or the direct object.
Remember: only ‘der’ words will change in this case. ‘Das’ and ‘die’ words remain the same.
Dative case
The Dative case is used to identify the indirect object of the sentence.
Here, the child and the patient are receiving the action, so ‘das’ and ‘der’ change to ‘dem’.
Genitive case
The Genitive case is used to show possession.
Here. the person who is possessing the item goes after the thing they are possessing and der and das change to ‘des’ and die changes to ‘der’ for both singular and plural nouns.
More examples for each case (the more practice, the better, right?).
Nominative:
Emil, der ein schwarzes Hemd trägt, ist meine Freund.
Emil, who wears a black shirt, is my boyfriend.
Accusative:
Sarah, die nebenan wohnt, ist sehr hübsch.
Sarah, who lives next door, is really beautiful.
Dative:
Das sind meine Freunde, mit denen ich Skat spiele.
Those are my friends with whom I play Skat.
Genitive:
Laura, deren Wohnung sehr schön ist, lebt in Berlin.
Laura, whose flat is really beautiful, lives in Berlin.Additional Tips and Advice
When constructing a sentence which uses relative pronouns, the conjugated (changed) verb moves to the end of the sentence or last spot in the relative clause.
That can be a bit tricky to remember since English doesn’t operate that way. But, once you get into the swing of it with German, you’ll know what sounds right!
For example, check out these sentences:
Extra possibilities for relative pronouns:
Was er mir gesagt hat, war nicht richtig.
What he told me wasn’t correct.
Also...
Wo: where (this word does not change its form when its used as a relative pronoun.)
Weiß er, wo die Post ist? (Does he know where the post office is?)
Was: what
Was er mich gesagt hat, war nicht richtig (What he told me wasn’t correct.)Quick recap
Good luck on your relativpronomen journey!!
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