A2.2 · 21 of 36
Relativsätze: der, die, das (Nom/Akk)
Lesson · 4 rules · about 5 min
Describe people and things in one breath — der Mann, der dort wohnt — using articles you already know.
- 1The pronoun = the article of the noun
- 2Subject of the clause → nominative; object → accusative (den)
- 3Comma before, verb at the end
- 4Only den is new
Why this matters
A relative clause describes a noun with a whole clause: der Mann, der dort wohnt (the man who lives there); das Buch, das ich lese (the book I'm reading). German has no separate 'who / which / that': the relative pronoun is the definite article — der, die, das, die — chosen by the gender and number of the noun it refers back to, and by its case in the relative clause. That second decision is the only work: if the pronoun is the subject of its clause (who lives, that lies), nominative: der / die / das / die; if it is the object (whom I know, that I bought), accusative — only the masculine changes: den. And as with every subordinate clause, the verb goes to the end and a comma comes first. This is a first look, kept deliberately small: every sentence starts with Das ist / Das sind, the relative pronoun is the only gap, and only two cases appear. For now you need to recognise relative clauses in reading and produce this simplest shape; the full system — dative, genitive, prepositions — comes later in the course.
Relativpronomen
the man who lives there (Nom)
Das ist der Mann, dort wohnt.
That's the man who lives there.
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Exercise
Relativsätze: der, die, das (Nom/Akk) · A2.2
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