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.

With prepositions

In everyday English a relative clause with a preposition usually has the preposition hanging off the end of the clause, e.g. "The swimming pool that you're going to."

In German the relative clause begins with the preposition, followed by the relative pronoun, e.g. "Das Schwimmbad, zu dem du gehst." That's like saying in English: "The swimming pool to which you're going."

[Foto (copyright: D Nutting): Buchtitel mit Relativpronomen und Präposition]

An example of a relative pronoun used with a preposition: "Der Tag, an dem ich cool wurde" ('The day on which I became cool' - book for teenagers)

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)