Relative Pronouns: wat, wie, waar- | Afrikaans Grammar

A relative pronoun is the little word that hooks a describing clause onto a noun: the woman *who sings, the book **that I read. English forces you to choose between *who, which, and that depending on whether the noun is a person or a thing. Afrikaans sweeps that choice away: one pronoun, wat, does almost all the work. This page is about choosing the right relative pronoun — wat, wie, or a *waar-*compound. Where the resulting clause puts its words is a separate matter, covered in full on relative-clause word order; here we focus on the pronoun.

wat is the all-purpose relativiser — people and things alike

The headline fact: wat relativises everything. Person, animal, object, abstract idea — if it is the noun being described, wat is the pronoun that introduces the clause. The English split between who (people) and which/that (things) simply does not exist.

Die vrou wat sing, is my suster.

The woman who is singing is my sister.

Die huis wat ons koop, is naby die see.

The house that we're buying is near the sea.

Die hond wat blaf, byt nie.

The dog that barks doesn't bite.

In the first, wat stands in for a person (die vrou); in the second, for a thing (die huis); in the third, for an animal (die hond). Same pronoun every time. For an English speaker this is a rare case where the foreign language is easier than the native one — there is genuinely one fewer decision to make.

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Whenever you would reach for English who, which, or that as a relative, the Afrikaans default is the same single word: wat. Do not try to recreate the people/things distinction — it does not exist in the relative system.

wat works as both subject and object of its clause

A subtlety that trips up learners: in English, the relative pronoun changes shape depending on its role — the man *who saw me (subject) versus the man **whom I saw (object), though *that covers both colloquially. Afrikaans does not bother: wat serves as the subject of its clause and as its object without any change of form.

Die man wat my gesien het, het niks gesê nie.

The man who saw me said nothing.

Die man wat ek gesien het, was 'n vreemdeling.

The man (whom) I saw was a stranger.

In the first sentence wat is the subject doing the seeing; in the second it is the object being seen. The form is identical — only the surrounding words tell you the role. And note that, unlike English where that/whom can be dropped (the man I saw), Afrikaans normally keeps wat. You cannot leave it out.

Die kos wat sy gemaak het, was heerlik.

The food (that) she made was delicious.

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Afrikaans does not allow the "zero relative" of English. English lets you say "the book I read" with no relative word; Afrikaans requires die boek wat ek gelees het. The pronoun must be present.

Prepositional relatives: the split between people and things

This is the one place where the single-pronoun simplicity breaks, and it breaks along a clear line: people versus things. When a preposition governs the relative (English the man *with whom I spoke, the pen **with which you write*), Afrikaans handles the two cases completely differently.

For people, use the preposition followed by wie: met wie (with whom), oor wie (about whom), vir wie (for whom), aan wie (to whom). Here the older pronoun wie survives precisely because it is the form preposition take with people.

Die man met wie ek praat, is 'n joernalis.

The man I'm talking to is a journalist.

Die vrou vir wie ek werk, is baie streng.

The woman I work for is very strict.

Die vriend oor wie ek vertel het, kom môre kuier.

The friend I told you about is coming to visit tomorrow.

For things, you do not say "met wat". Instead Afrikaans fuses the preposition with waar- into a single solid word — waarmee (with which), waarin (in which), waaroor (about which), waarvan (of which) — and places it at the front of the clause.

Die pen waarmee jy skryf, is myne.

The pen you're writing with is mine.

Die mes waarmee ek sny, is baie skerp.

The knife I cut with is very sharp.

Die boek waarin ek dit gelees het, is uitverkoop.

The book I read it in is sold out.

So the rule is a clean fork: person → preposition + wie; thing → waar-compound. Crucially, Afrikaans never strands the preposition at the end the way English does ("the pen you write with"). The relationship is always carried to the front of the clause, either as met wie or as waarmee. The full inventory of *waar-*forms and exactly how they sit in the clause is on the waar-compounds page.

English	Antecedent is a person	Antecedent is a thing
with whom / which	met wie	waarmee
about whom / which	oor wie	waaroor
in whom / which	in wie	waarin
of whom / which	van wie	waarvan
for whom / which	vir wie	waarvoor

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The fork is people vs. things. Person + preposition → met wie, oor wie, vir wie (two words). Thing + preposition → waarmee, waaroor, waarvoor (one solid word, no diacritics). Afrikaans never ends the clause on a stranded preposition.

Possessive: wie se ("whose")

For "whose", Afrikaans combines wie with the possessive marker se: wie se, followed by the thing possessed. This works for people and, loosely, for things.

Die seun wie se fiets gesteel is, woon hier naby.

The boy whose bike was stolen lives nearby.

Ek het 'n vriendin wie se ouers in Frankryk bly.

I have a friend whose parents live in France.

This is the only spot where bare wie (without a preposition) is still alive in modern Afrikaans. Elsewhere — for plain subject and object relatives — wie has been entirely replaced by wat.

A note on register: that's all you need

Older and more literary Afrikaans occasionally used wie as a standalone relative for people (die man wie daar staan), echoing Dutch. This is now archaic; in modern Afrikaans, whether formal or casual, the relative for a person who is the subject or object of the clause is plainly wat (die man wat daar staan). Reserve wie for two jobs only: after a preposition (met wie) and in the possessive (wie se).

Die span wat gewen het, kry 'n trofee.

The team that won gets a trophy.

Common mistakes

❌ Die vrou wie sing, is my suster.

Incorrect — for a plain subject relative, even with a person, use wat, not wie.

✅ Die vrou wat sing, is my suster.

The woman who is singing is my sister.

❌ Die boek ek lees is interessant.

Incorrect — Afrikaans cannot drop the relative pronoun; wat is required.

✅ Die boek wat ek lees, is interessant.

The book I'm reading is interesting.

❌ Die pen wat jy mee skryf, is myne.

Incorrect — don't strand the preposition; fuse it into waarmee.

✅ Die pen waarmee jy skryf, is myne.

The pen you're writing with is mine.

❌ Die man waarmee ek praat, is 'n joernalis.

Incorrect — waar-compounds are for things; for a person use met wie.

✅ Die man met wie ek praat, is 'n joernalis.

The man I'm talking to is a journalist.

❌ Die seun wie fiets gesteel is, woon hier.

Incorrect — 'whose' needs the possessive se: wie se fiets.

✅ Die seun wie se fiets gesteel is, woon hier.

The boy whose bike was stolen lives here.

Key takeaways

wat is the all-purpose relative pronoun — for people, animals, things, and ideas alike. English's who/which/that split collapses into one word.
wat serves as both subject and object of its clause without changing form, and unlike English it cannot be omitted.
Prepositional relatives split by person vs. thing: people take preposition + wie (met wie, oor wie); things take a solid waar-compound (waarmee, waaroor). See waar-compounds.
Afrikaans never strands a preposition at the end of the clause the way English does.
wie se is "whose"; bare wie otherwise survives only after prepositions — its standalone relative use is archaic.
Where the words land inside the clause (verb-final order) is covered on relative-clause word order.

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