A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German
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12/8/2017
There are two rules in German that make recognizing relative clauses easier than in
English:
1. German only rarely omits the relative pronoun as we often do in English: "The
book he is reading is interesting." Thus, normally, the relative pronoun will be
the first word in the clause, unless it is used with a preposition, which will
precede it – see example #6 below.
2. German marks both the beginning and the end of the relative clause with
commas.
Examples of relative pronouns and clauses:
1. Der Computer, der [nominative case-masculine] in diesem Zimmer steht, ist
neu.
The computer (which is) standing in this room is new.
2. Der Computer, den [accusative-masculine] ich habe, ist neu.
The computer (which) I have is new.
3. Der Professor, dessen [genitive-masculine] Buch ich lese, ist wohlbekannt.
The professor whose book I am reading is well-known.
4. Der Student, dem [dative-masculine] ich das Buch gebe, heißt Hans.
The student to whom I give the book is called Hans.
5. Die Arbeiter, denen [dative-plural] wir Computer geben, sind intelligent.
The workers to whom we give computers are intelligent.
6. Die Maschine, mit der [dative-feminine] ich arbeite, ist komplex.
The machine with which I am working is complex.
The meaning of a relative pronoun can be determined if you note the following:
1. The relative pronoun agrees in both gender and number with the word it
refers to. Therefore, in our examples, if the noun in the main sentence is
masculine and singular then the relative pronoun is masculine and singular,
etc.
2. The case of the relative pronoun agrees with the role it plays within the
relative clause, not by the role of the word in the main sentence to which it
refers.
3. When you are in doubt about which item the clause is referring back to,
assume the nearest preceding noun (whether implied or stated) that meets the
first rule above.