A2 · GRAMMAR
Relative Clauses (Relativsätze)
A relative clause describes a noun: 'the man who is standing there', 'the movie that I watched'. In English, this usually comes before the noun. In German, the description comes after the noun, separated by a comma, and starts with der/die/das. The verb goes to the end of the clause.
In this lesson
1. Structure
Noun, der/die/das ... verb.
Der Mann, der dort steht, ist mein Chef.
The man who is standing there is my boss.
2. Gender of the noun
The relative pronoun takes the gender of the noun it describes: der Mann → der, die Frau → die.
3. Case from the clause
The case of the pronoun depends on its role in the relative clause: subject → Nominative, object → Accusative.
Der Film, den ich gesehen habe, war gut.
The movie that I saw was good.
4. Pronouns
Nominative and Accusative are the same as the definite articles, with one exception: masculine Accusative → den.
💡 Think in two steps: 1) Which noun? → gives you the gender (der/die/das). 2) What is its job in the relative clause? Subject or object? → gives you the case.