Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook

UNIT TWENTY

Unit 20 Relative clauses

What are relative clauses?

Relative clauses are subordinate clauses which provide more information

about a noun or phrase in the main clause. They are usually introduced

byrelative pronouns, words such as ‘who’, ‘whose’ in English and die,

dessenin German:

Das ist die alte Frau, diein unserer Straße wohnt.

This is the old woman who lives in our street.

Da geht der Mann, dessenAuto gestohlen wurde.

There goes the man whose car was stolen.

Relative pronouns – an overview

List of all relative pronouns

Here are all the relative pronouns:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural

Nom. der die das die

Acc. den die das die

Dat. dem der dem denen

Gen. dessen deren dessen deren

Note that the forms of relative pronouns are similar to the definite articles.

Only the dative plural (denen) and all the genitive forms differ in their

endings.

111

2 3 4 5 6 7

8111

9

1011

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2011

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

3011

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4011

1

2

3

41111