Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to correctly form relative clauses, including choosing the correct relative pronoun by gender and case.

Lesson Explanation

A relative clause is a subordinate clause (previous lessons) that further describes a noun, and begins with a relative pronoun that genuinely resembles the definite article (Part 1, Lesson 2) in form — with a few important exceptions in the dative plural and genitive.

Relative pronouns in the nominative: der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter), die (plural) — identical to the definite article: Der Mann, der dort steht, ist mein Lehrer. (The man who is standing there is my teacher.)

The relative pronoun matches the noun it describes (the “antecedent”) in gender/number, but matches its OWN function in the relative clause in case — a genuinely important dual principle: Der Mann, den ich sehe, ist mein Lehrer. (“den” is masculine, like “der Mann,” but in the accusative, since “den Mann” is the object of “sehe,” not the subject of the relative clause).

And this example shows the genitive special case: Der Mann, dessen Auto rot ist, ist mein Lehrer. (“dessen” shows possession — a genuinely distinct relative pronoun in the genitive that differs noticeably from “der,” unlike the more regular nominative/accusative forms).

Since the subordinate clause follows the verb-last rule (Part 2, Lesson 3), the verb in a relative clause always sits at the end: …, der dort steht, not “der steht dort.”

Practice Questions