German Relative Pronouns

⭐ A relative pronoun introduces a clause (mini-sentence within the sentence) that has information relating back to something/somebody already mentioned.
E.g. "München is the city that hosted the Olympic Games in 1972".

Explanations:

A slide-show explaining how to use German relative pronouns - #01, in the Nominative case

A slide-show explaining how to use German relative pronouns - #02, in the Accusative case

Jenny explains the German relative pronouns in the Nominative and Accusative cases

The German relative pronouns in a table
Case 👇 Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative der die das die
Accusative den die das die
Dative dem der dem denen
Genitive
(possession)		 dessen deren dessen deren

etwas / alles / nichts

etwas, alles and nichts – after these words (indefinite pronouns referring to things), the relative pronoun is simply "was". See this example:

Max hat etwas, was ich gerne auch kaufen möchte.

[Foto (copyright: D Nutting): Buchtitel mit Relativpronomen-Beispiel]

An example of 'was' as a relative pronoun: "Alles, was ich wissen will" ('Everything that I want to know' - children's book)

[Foto (copyright: D Nutting): Buchtitel mit Relativpronomen-Beispiel]

An example of 'was' as a relative pronoun: "Alles, was Räder hat" ('Everything that has wheels' - children's book)

"was" is also used as a relative pronoun when the thing being referred back to is a whole clause (i.e. a whole ‘mini-sentence’). See this example:

Er geht jeden Morgen zum Schwimmtraining, was ich super finde.

When the relative pronoun is referring to (relating back to) the name of a country, city, or place, the word "wo" ('where', 'in which') is substituted for the relative pronoun. See this example:

Sie besucht Hamburg, wo sie viele Freunde hat. = She is visiting Hamburg, where she has many friends.

Interactive Exercises

Relative pronouns in the Nominative and Accusative cases: multiple-choice and gap-fill (D Nutting)

Relative pronouns in the Nominative and Accusative cases: word-order, sentence jumbled up (D Nutting)

Relative pronouns in the Nominative and Accusative cases - gap-fill in sentences (D Nutting)