Reference · module 20
The one that, the man who
Everything this module explains, on one page.
der, die, das again
Join two sentences into one with a relative clause.
- German has no separate word for who or which. It reuses der, die and das: Der Mann, der dort steht, ist mein Bruder.
- The gender comes from the noun it refers back to: der Mann, der; die Frau, die; das Kind, das. Say the noun and the pronoun follows.
- It is a subordinate clause, so the verb goes to the end, and it is always fenced with commas. Both rules are the ones you know from weil.
The mistake you are about to make
Der Mann, ich sehe, ist mein Bruder.
Der Mann, den ich sehe, ist mein Bruder.
English can leave the pronoun out altogether — the man I see. German never can: den has to be there, and so do both commas.
When the case changes
Pick the right relative pronoun when it is not the subject.
- The gender comes from the noun outside, but the case comes from the job inside. der Mann, den ich sehe — den, because inside the clause he is the object.
- In the dative it is dem, der, dem, denen: die Frau, der ich helfe. The pronoun is dative because helfen is, not because of anything outside.
- For whose there is dessen for masculine and neuter, deren for feminine and plural: der Mann, dessen Auto dort steht.
The mistake you are about to make
die Frau, die ich helfe
die Frau, der ich helfe
English has one "who" for every job, so the gender form gets reused everywhere. Helfen takes the dative, and the pronoun goes with it: die Frau, der ich helfe.
With a preposition in front
Say the house I live in, the way German says it.
- The preposition comes first and never at the end: das Haus, in dem ich wohne. German cannot say the house I live in.
- The preposition also decides the case, exactly as it does anywhere else: in dem for a position, in das for a movement.
- For a place, wo is a common shortcut: das Haus, wo ich wohne. It is everyday speech and slightly less precise, and everyone uses it.
The mistake you are about to make
das Haus, das ich wohne in
das Haus, in dem ich wohne
English is happy to end on the preposition — the house I live in. German puts it in front of the pronoun and never, ever at the end.
Describing people and things
Define something you do not know the word for.
- A relative clause is how you talk around a word you have forgotten: Das ist ein Ding, mit dem man Brot schneidet. That is a bread knife.
- Two frames carry almost all of it: Das ist eine Person, die … and Das ist etwas, was man … Both buy you time and both sound natural.
The mistake you are about to make
Das ist eine Person, was viel arbeitet.
Das ist eine Person, die viel arbeitet.
"That" covers people and things alike in English, so was gets used for both. A person takes die; was belongs to etwas, alles and nichts.