The words die, dat, wat, wie and waar (combined with a preposition) are relative pronouns — they stand in for a noun and tie a clause back to it: the man *who called, the house **that burned down. Because they are pronouns, they belong in your mental map of the pronoun system. But relative clauses have their own logic — word order, gender agreement, the *waar-construction for things — that goes well beyond pronoun choice, so they are treated in full in the Relative Clauses group. This page exists to give you the inventory and then send you to the right detail page. It deliberately does not re-teach the material: duplicating it would only let the two copies drift apart. Think of this as a switchboard.
The English problem to flag up front: English collapses almost everything into that / which / who, and lets you drop the relative entirely (the book I read). Dutch does neither. It splits the basic relative by the gender of the noun, it forces a different word after prepositions, and it almost never allows you to omit the relative. So the single "that/which/who" instinct you bring from English will steer you wrong in three distinct ways. Here is the map.
die and dat — the basic relatives, keyed to gender
The default relative pronoun agrees with the gender of the noun it refers back to: die for de-words (and all plurals), dat for het-words. This is the gender split English simply does not have.
De man die naast me woont, is arts.
The man who lives next to me is a doctor. 'man' is a de-word → 'die'.
Het huis dat we kochten, is honderd jaar oud.
The house that we bought is a hundred years old. 'huis' is a het-word → 'dat'.
Choosing between die and dat is purely a matter of the antecedent's gender — and that one decision is the heart of Die vs Dat. The broader picture of how the whole relative clause is built sits on Relative Clauses: Overview.
wie — for people, especially after a preposition
When the relative refers to a person and a preposition is involved, Dutch switches to wie (who/whom). You cannot say de man met die; the preposition forces wie.
De vrouw met wie ik sprak, was de directeur.
The woman I spoke with was the director. After the preposition 'met', a person → 'wie'.
De collega aan wie ik het vroeg, wist het ook niet.
The colleague I asked didn't know either. 'aan wie' — preposition + person.
The full set of rules for wie, including the preposition placement that English handles with stranding ("the woman I spoke with"), is on Wie and Prepositions.
wat — for indefinite and clausal antecedents
Use wat when there is no concrete noun to agree with: after indefinite words like alles, iets, niets, veel, after a superlative neuter, and when the relative refers back to a whole clause rather than a single noun.
Alles wat hij zei, klopte.
Everything he said was right. Indefinite 'alles' → 'wat'.
Hij was te laat, wat ik vervelend vond.
He was late, which I found annoying. 'wat' refers to the whole preceding clause.
The boundary cases — iets dat vs iets wat, and why a clause takes wat — are laid out on Wat as a Relative.
waar + preposition — for things, not people
This is the construction with no English parallel. When the relative refers to a thing (not a person) and a preposition is involved, Dutch does not say op dat or met dat. Instead it fuses waar + the preposition into one word — waarop, waarmee, waarin — which can also split (waar... op).
De stoel waarop ik zat, was kapot.
The chair I was sitting on was broken. Thing + preposition 'op' → 'waarop' (not 'op dat').
Het mes waarmee ze sneed, was bot.
The knife she cut with was blunt. 'met' + thing → 'waarmee'.
The full treatment — when it splits, how it relates to the er-construction — is on Waar + Preposition.
Quick inventory
| Pronoun | Used for | Example | Full page |
|---|---|---|---|
| die | de-words & plurals | de man die... | Die vs Dat |
| dat | het-words | het huis dat... | Die vs Dat |
| wie | people after a preposition | de vrouw met wie... | Wie and Prepositions |
| wat | indefinite / whole clause | alles wat..., ..., wat... | Wat as a Relative |
| waar + prep. | things after a preposition | de stoel waarop... | Waar + Preposition |
Common Mistakes
❌ Het huis die we kochten.
Wrong — 'huis' is a het-word, so the relative is 'dat', not 'die'. The gender split is mandatory.
✅ Het huis dat we kochten.
The house that we bought.
❌ De vrouw met die ik sprak.
Wrong — after a preposition, a person takes 'wie', not 'die': 'met wie'.
✅ De vrouw met wie ik sprak.
The woman I spoke with.
❌ De stoel op die ik zat.
Wrong — a thing after a preposition uses 'waar' + preposition fused: 'waarop', not 'op die'.
✅ De stoel waarop ik zat.
The chair I was sitting on.
❌ Het boek ik gelezen heb. (dropping the relative, English-style)
Wrong — Dutch can't omit the relative the way English drops 'that'. You need 'dat': 'het boek dat ik gelezen heb'.
✅ Het boek dat ik gelezen heb.
The book (that) I read.
For everything beyond this inventory — word order inside the clause, splitting waar...op, the iets dat/wat gray zone — follow the links into the Relative Clauses group, where each pronoun gets the room it needs.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Pronouns: OverviewA1 — A map of the Dutch pronoun system: subject vs object forms, the stressed/unstressed pairs that run through the whole system (ik/'k, jij/je, hij/ie), the formal u, reflexive zich, and possessives — with pointers to the detail page for each.
- Dutch Relative Clauses: OverviewB1 — How Dutch attaches a who/which/that clause to a noun — the pronoun agrees with the noun's gender and number, and the verb is banished to the end of the clause.
- Die vs Dat: Choosing the Relative PronounB1 — The core relative-pronoun choice in Dutch — die for de-words and all plurals, dat for singular het-words — and why it tracks the noun's gender, not the clause.
- Wat as a Relative PronounB2 — When Dutch uses wat instead of dat or die — after alles/iets/niets, after a neuter superlative, after dat, and when the antecedent is a whole clause.
- Waar + Preposition: Relatives for ThingsB2 — How to build relative clauses for things after a preposition in Dutch using waar + preposition — fused (waarop) or split (waar … op) — and why you can never say 'op die' or 'met dat'.
- Wie: Relatives for People after a PrepositionB2 — When a relative pronoun referring to a person is governed by a preposition, Dutch uses preposition + wie — met wie, aan wie, op wie — and never waar- or die.