Most relative clauses in Danish modify a single noun: manden, der bor ved siden af ("the man who lives next door"). But sometimes you want a relative clause to comment on an entire situation — "he was late, which annoyed everyone" — and sometimes you want a relative with no antecedent at all — "take what you want." For these jobs Danish reaches for hvilket and hvad, two relativisers that behave very differently from the everyday der and som. Getting them right is a clear marker of advanced Danish, and using der/som in their place is one of the most persistent intermediate errors.
The default relatives refer to a noun
First, the baseline. Der and som are the workhorse relative pronouns, and they always attach to a noun (a person or thing) mentioned just before them. Der can only be a subject; som can be subject or object. (Full treatment at pronouns/relative-der-som.)
Bogen, som jeg lånte, var fantastisk.
The book that I borrowed was fantastic.
Kvinden, der ringede, ville tale med dig.
The woman who called wanted to speak to you.
In both, the relative points back to a concrete noun — bogen, kvinden. The moment your antecedent stops being a noun and becomes a whole clause, der and som stop working.
hvilket — "which," referring to a whole clause
When the thing you are commenting on is the entire preceding clause — a fact, an event, a situation — the relativiser is hvilket. It is the only relative pronoun in Danish that can take a clause as its antecedent. English does this with "which": "He arrived late, which annoyed me."
Han kom for sent, hvilket var irriterende.
He arrived late, which was annoying.
Hun bestod alle sine eksaminer, hvilket gjorde hendes forældre stolte.
She passed all her exams, which made her parents proud.
Toget var aflyst, hvilket betød, at vi måtte tage bussen.
The train was cancelled, which meant we had to take the bus.
In each case hvilket does not refer to any single noun — irriterende is not commenting on for sent the word, but on the whole fact that he arrived late. This clause-referring use is always preceded by a comma, and hvilket is invariant in this function (you do not change it to hvilken/hvilke here — the neuter hvilket is fixed because a clause is conceptually neuter).
A useful test: clause-referring hvilket can almost always be rephrased with og det ("and that"). Han kom for sent, og det var irriterende. If that rephrase works, hvilket is correct.
A more formal flavour
Clause-referring hvilket leans slightly formal and is most at home in writing (formal). In casual speech, Danes very often prefer the og det-paraphrase:
Han kom for sent, og det var irriterende.
He arrived late, and that was annoying. (informal, spoken)
Both are correct; hvilket is the tighter, more written-register option, and the one you must be able to read and produce at B2.
hvad — the free relative "what / that which"
hvad is a free relative: it bundles the antecedent and the relative pronoun into one word, meaning "the thing that" / "what." There is no separate noun for it to refer to — hvad supplies its own.
Tag, hvad du vil.
Take what you want.
Jeg forstår ikke, hvad du mener.
I don't understand what you mean.
Hvad der sker nu, er op til dig.
What happens now is up to you.
The third example shows a subtlety: when hvad is the subject of its own relative clause, Danish adds der after it — hvad der sker ("what happens"), not *hvad sker. This hvad der combination is required whenever hvad functions as the subject inside the clause, mirroring the way der fills the subject slot in ordinary relatives.
Han gjorde altid, hvad der var bedst for familien.
He always did what was best for the family.
Do not confuse this relative hvad with the interrogative hvad in direct questions (Hvad sagde du? "What did you say?"). They are the same word historically, but here hvad is heading a subordinate relative clause, not asking a question. (For its question use, see pronouns/interrogative.)
Why der and som cannot do this
The error English speakers and intermediate learners make is to extend som or der to clause antecedents, because in many languages the everyday relative also covers this. In Danish it simply cannot: der and som are grammatically tied to a nominal antecedent. A clause is not a noun, so there is nothing for them to attach to.
❌ Han kom for sent, som var irriterende.
Incorrect — som needs a noun antecedent, not a clause.
✅ Han kom for sent, hvilket var irriterende.
He arrived late, which was annoying.
This is the distinguishing rule worth memorising: only hvilket can take a whole clause as its antecedent. No amount of context licenses som or der here.
hvilket vs hvilken/hvilke as determiners
A quick disambiguation: hvilken (common), hvilket (neuter), and hvilke (plural) also exist as the interrogative/relative determiner "which" before a noun (hvilken bog = "which book"). That is a different construction with full agreement. The clause-referring hvilket discussed on this page is the fixed neuter form standing alone after a comma — it does not agree with anything, because its antecedent is a whole clause.
Hvilken farve kan du bedst lide?
Which colour do you like best? (determiner, agrees with the noun)
Hun sagde ja, hvilket overraskede alle.
She said yes, which surprised everyone. (clause-referring, fixed neuter)
Common Mistakes
❌ Vi vandt kampen, der var fantastisk.
Ambiguous/incorrect — der seems to modify 'kampen,' not the whole event.
✅ Vi vandt kampen, hvilket var fantastisk.
We won the match, which was fantastic (the winning was fantastic).
❌ Tag det du vil.
Incomplete — a free relative needs hvad, not 'det … (som).'
✅ Tag, hvad du vil.
Take what you want.
❌ Jeg ved ikke, hvad sker nu.
Incorrect — subject hvad requires hvad der.
✅ Jeg ved ikke, hvad der sker nu.
I don't know what happens now.
❌ Hun blev forfremmet, som glædede hele afdelingen.
Incorrect — som can't take the whole clause as antecedent.
✅ Hun blev forfremmet, hvilket glædede hele afdelingen.
She got promoted, which pleased the whole department.
Key Takeaways
- der/som attach to a noun; they cannot refer to a clause.
- hvilket is the only relativiser that can take a whole clause as antecedent ("which" = "and that"). It is invariant and slightly formal; the spoken paraphrase is og det.
- hvad is a free relative ("what / that which") with no separate antecedent. When hvad is the subject of its clause, use hvad der.
- Substituting som/der for clause-referring hvilket is the signature intermediate error — fix it by testing the og det paraphrase.
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Relative Pronouns: Der and SomB1 — Danish links relative clauses with der (subject only) and som (subject or object, and droppable when it is the object) — plus hvad, hvilket, and prepositional relatives.
- Reported Speech and BackshiftB2 — How Danish turns direct quotes into indirect speech — the complementiser at, tense backshift, pronoun and deictic shifts, reported questions with om and hv-words, and modal backshift.
- Relative ClausesB1 — How Danish relative clauses work: der for subjects, som for subjects or objects (droppable as object), preposition stranding as the everyday norm, and restrictive vs non-restrictive commas.
- Interrogative Pronouns: Hvem, Hvad, HvilkenA2 — Danish question pronouns — hvem (who/whom, no case change), hvad (what), the agreeing hvilken/hvilket/hvilke (which), hvis (whose), and the spoken hvad for en/et/nogle — plus the V2 inversion they trigger.