In this lesson, you will learn all about the relative pronoun in the nominative and accusative case. How do they sound in the nominative case and how do they sound in the accusative case, what are the similarities and differences.
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In the nominative and accusative, the form of the relative pronoun is the same as the form of the definite article:
Nominative: masculine: der – feminine: die – neuter: das – plural: die
Accusative: masculine: den – feminine: die – neuter: das – plural: die
NOMINATIVE
You need to learn three important things that can help you create a relative clause in an easy and simple way. Let’s see how to do it😃.
When combining two clauses into one, pay attention to the reference word in the first clause. Check if the noun is singular or plural, and also check the gender. In the second clause, it’s necessary to determine the case.
For example:
Das ist der Mann. Der Mann arbeitet mit mir. = Das ist der Mann, der mit mir arbeitet.
The noun der Mann in the first clause is a WORD, which we want to describe more precisely and to which our relative clause will refer, and that’s why we call that word a REFERENCE WORD.
So let’s see what information we can extract from the REFERENCE WORD, so der Mann is singular and masculine.
We have gathered two pieces of information, we still have one left.
We have to look for the third piece of information in the second clause. The word that is important to us in the second sentence is again der Mann (it is the same word from the first sentence).
Der Mann is the subject and is in the NOMINATIVE, and the nominative is the information we
are looking for. Now we have all the information: singular, masculine and nominative.
Let’s search for this information in the table and see what we get. If we look for singular, masculine, and nominative, all three parameters indicate the relative pronoun “der.”
Now we can easily make a relative clause:
For example:
Das ist der Mann, der mit mir arbeitet.
Don’t forget that the relative clause is a dependent clause and that the verb comes at the end of the clause.
We omitted the noun Mann in the second clause and moved the verb to the end of the clause.
Click on:
Grammar Contents
ACCUSATIVE
In the same way, we form relative clauses with the accusative:
Here is an example for the ACCUSATIVE:
Das ist der Mann. Ich habe ihn gestern getroffen.
der Mann: singular, masculine
ihn: accusative pronoun
Das ist der Mann, den ich gestern getroffen habe.
1. The noun Mann is singular (plural is Männer)
2. The definite article der before the noun Mann indicates the masculine gender
3. The masculine pronoun ihn is in the accusative case
The result of this information is the relative pronoun den;
Let’s look in the table again:
What else is VERY IMPORTANT, what you should pay attention to, are the verbs in the second sentence, for example:
Das ist der Mann, den ich gestern getroffen habe.
This is the man I met yesterday.
You can ask yourself a question:
Wen habe ich gestern getroffen? – ihn – den Mann – den
Who did I meet yesterday? – him
There are more examples like this here:
Das ist der Mann, den ich liebe. – That’s the man I love.
Ist das die Lampe, die dir dein Freund gegeben hat? – Is that the lamp your friend gave you?
Wo ist das Kleid, das du gestern gekauft hast? – Where’s the dress you bought yesterday?
Wo sind die Schuhe, die wir zur Arbeit im Garten anziehen? – Where are the shoes we wear to work in the garden?
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