German relative pronouns cause some students a headache simply because they haven’t taken time to understand how the relative clause sentence pattern works and what it’s for. Don’t make that mistake! In this post, you’ll find a clear explanation with the jargon busted and lots of clear examples. All the way through, we’ll highlight what’s similar to English. To finish, we’ll flag up some common pitfalls for the unwary English speaker.
The basic idea of relative pronouns and relative clauses: English and German compared
Imagine you have a simple phrase in English that makes sense on its own.
For example “I know the woman”.
This makes sense as an independent sentence.
If you want to make it clear who or what you’re referring to or add some more information about it, you can follow up with a second, free-standing sentence:
I know the woman. The woman is old.
Both these sentences are also clauses. A clause is simply a phrase that contains a verb form that shows who (the “subject”) that is “doing” the action or experience state of the verb (knows, ate, loves, is) as opposed to an infinitive (to know, to eat, to love, to be or the -ing form: knowing, eating etc).
Another way to make it clear who or what you’re referring to or to add more information about the person or thing is to add another clause (with a second finite verb) in which a relative pronoun – who, whom, which or that – refers the noun (the person or thing) in the first clause.
I know the woman, who is old
Here we’ve got two clauses but just one sentence, as the additional clause doesn’t make sense on its own. It only makes sense in relation to the (potentially free-standing) main clause. It’s a relative clause, introduced by the English relative pronoun “who”. The other relative pronouns are “whom”, “that” or “which”:
The house that Jack built
That house that Jack built, which has a red roof
The waiter whom I paid
It’s the same in German. To take the same example, we can have two sentences (main clauses)
Ich kenne die Frau. Die Frau ist alt.
Ich kenne die Frau, die alt ist. I know the woman who is old.
Wir haben einen Hund, der sehr alt ist. We have a dog that is very old.
Er wohnt in einer Wohnung, die nicht sehr groß ist. He lives in an apartment that isn’t very large.
Here the relative pronoun is “die”, not to be confused with the definite article “die” (the, feminie singular). We’ll look at the other German relative pronouns in the next section.
The relative clause can also be embedded in the main clause.
Der Mann, der dort steht, wohnt in Berlin.
Der Hund, den wir haben, ist sehr alt.
Die Wohnung, in der er wohnt, ist nicht sehr groß.
Here we have more relative pronouns: der, den, der (again, not to be confused with the articles, der, den, der, all meaning “the”).
As you can see from these examples, in German, you always separate the relative clause off from the rest of the sentence with commas.
Notice also that because relative clauses are a type of subordinate clause, the verb has moved to the end. The other types of subordinate clauses are those that begin with a subordinating “conjunction” (such as dass, wenn, weil, obwohl) as in “ or an interrogative “w-word” used in indirect questions (wann, warum, wer, was, welche), for example “Ich verstehe nicht, warum er das Buch gekauft hat”.
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Overview of the German relative pronouns
| masculine | feminine | neuter | plural | |
| nominative | der | die | das | die |
| accusative | den | die | das | die |
| dative | dem | der | dem | denen |
| genitive | desen | deren | desen | deren |
We’ve seen in English the relative pronouns are “who”, “whom”, “which” or “that”. As you can see from the table, the German relative pronouns change according to case and, in the singular, according to gender as well. They are identical to the definite article “die” (the), except in the genitive case (where all forms add -en) and the dative plural (also adds -en).
The noun or pronoun in the main clause that gives the relative pronoun its gender or shows plural (the noun or pronoun referred to is the “antecedent”). The case of the relative pronoun depends on its own role in the relative clause itself
To make this clear, here are some more example sentences, with some the declined relative pronouns underlined.
Der Mann, den Sie dort sehen, ist Polizist
Das Kind, dem du den Apfel gegeben hast, hat kein Hunger
Die Frau, der Sie helfen, ist sehr dankbar
Die Frauen, denen Sie helfen, sind sehr dankbar
Der Fahrer, dessen Auto gestohlen wurde, ging zur Polizei
Die Frau, deren Sohn Frank heisst, arbeitet mit mir.
Die Damen und Herrn, deren Autos stehen am Parkplatz, sind bei uns zu Gaste.
German relative clauses with prepositions
German relative clauses sometimes begin not with the relative pronoun, but with a preposition.
As you probably know, prepositions in German require the use of a specific case. If a preposition is used with a relative pronoun that pronoun will need to be in the correct case.
Here are some examples:
Mein Bruder hatte ein sehr teures Ticket, mit dem er sehr unglücklich war. My brother had a very expensive ticket with which he was very unhappy.
Sie geht direkt zum Schalter, an dem ein freundlicher Mitarbeiter sitzt. She goes straight to the counter at which a friendly member of staff is sitting.
Wie heißt die Studentin, mit der Frank ins Theater gegangen ist?
Wo(r) and a preposition instead of a relative pronoun with a preposition
If you’re using a relative pronoun with a preposition to refer to an object or something abstract you can use wo- (wor- before a preposition beginning with a vowel) instead:
Der Bleistift, mit dem er schreibt, ist blau > Der Bleistift, womit er schreibt, ist blau
Der Stühl auf dem ich er gesessen war, war sehr unbequem > Der Stühl, worauf er gessen war, war sehr unbequem.
Wer and was as relative pronouns
Wer is normally the question word who: Wer bist du? Who are you? But Germans also sometimes use wer as a relative pronoun to mean “The one who”, “S/he he” or “Whoever” (the so-called “unknown antecedents”. Examples:
Wer viel Geld hat, ist glücklich The one who/He who/whoever has a lot of money is happy.
Wer das glaubt, hat recht The one who/He who/whoever believes that is right.
Was is normally also a question word (what). But Germans also use it as a relative pronoun to refer to a so-called “indefinite antecedent”: that which, whatever, alles (all), nichts (nothing), etwas (something) or viel/vieles (much).
Here are some examples:
Alles, was du sagst, ist falsch. All that you say is wrong
Nicht alles, was glänzt, ist Gold. All that glistens is not gold.
Was er auch macht, reicht nicht. Whatever he does isn’t enough .
Was er auch macht, reicht nicht. Whatever he does isn’t enough .
Was er auch macht, reicht nicht. Whatever he does isn’t enough .
Wem ich glauben soll, weiß ich nicht. I don’t know whom I should believe.
Welche as an alternative relative pronouns
Welcher is another relative pronoun, used in the same was as “der” (see the table above). In form, it’s the same as the der-word “welcher” but it’s never used in the genitive.
| masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| nominative | welcher | welche | welches | |
| accusative | welchen | welche | welches | |
| dative | welchem | welcher | welchem |
Die Frau, welcher Sie helfen, ist sehr dankbar
Die Frauen, welchen Sie helfen, sind sehr dankbar
Mein Bruder hatte ein sehr teures Ticket, mit welchem er sehr unglücklich war.
Sie geht direkt zum Schalter, an welchem ein freundlicher Mitarbeiter sitzt.
Wie heißt die Studentin, mit welcher Frank ins Theater gegangen ist?
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Using German relative pronouns: typical English speaker mistakes to avoid
- Don’t leave out the relative pronoun.
- Don’t mix up who(m) and that as a relative pronouns with the question Who? and the “that” used to report what somebody says or feels.
- In German, you must keep the preposition and the pronoun together at the beginning of the Nebensatz whereas in English, we often move the preposition to the end of the sentence.
For My brother had a very expensive ticket that he was very unhappy with you must say Mein Bruder hatte ein sehr teures Ticket, mit dem er sehr unglücklich war. (My brother had a very expensive ticket with which he was very unhappy.)
We might say She goes straight to the counter that a friendly member of staff is sitting at but in German this is: Sie geht direkt zum Schalter, an dem ein freundlicher Mitarbeiter sitzt. (She goes straight to the counter at which a friendly member of staff is sitting.)
- Be careful with the genitive relative pronoun
Germans trend to avoid the genitive case so you’d often say “von” + dative, instead of dessen or deren. You will sometimes seen the genitive relative pronoun, though. Notice that to translate “one of whom”, “some of whom” flip round the components
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