Relative Pronouns: der, die, das | German Grammar

A relative clause adds information about a noun — the man who called yesterday, the book that I'm reading. In German the linking word is almost always a form of der, die, das, and choosing the right form rests on two completely independent decisions made at the same moment: the pronoun's gender and number come from the noun outside the clause (its antecedent), while its case comes from the job it does inside the clause. Add the rule that German relative clauses send their verb to the very end, and you have everything you need to build them. This page works through both decisions and the word order they sit in.

Two decisions, two sources

Every relative pronoun answers two questions, and the answers come from opposite ends of the sentence.

Gender and number → look outside, at the antecedent. If the noun is der Mann (masculine singular), the pronoun is masculine singular; if it's die Kinder (plural), the pronoun is plural. This part simply matches.
Case → look inside, at the pronoun's grammatical role in its own clause. Is it the subject of the relative clause (nominative)? The direct object (accusative)? The indirect object or object of a dative verb (dative)? A possessor (genitive)?

Hold these apart and the system is mechanical. The classic worked example uses one antecedent, der Mann, in three roles:

Der Mann, der dort steht, ist mein Onkel.

The man who is standing over there is my uncle. (masc. from Mann; nominative — he is the subject of 'steht')

Der Mann, den ich kenne, wohnt nebenan.

The man (whom) I know lives next door. (masc. from Mann; accusative — he is the object of 'kenne')

Der Mann, dem ich helfe, ist mein Nachbar.

The man (whom) I'm helping is my neighbour. (masc. from Mann; dative — helfen takes the dative)

In all three the antecedent is the same masculine noun, so all three pronouns are masculine. What changes is the case — der, den, dem — and it changes purely because of what the pronoun does inside its own clause: subject, direct object, dative object. The English "who/whom/that" gives almost no hint of this, which is exactly why the case decision must be made consciously.

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Build a relative pronoun in two steps. Step 1: gender/number from the noun outside. Step 2: case from the role inside. Decide them separately — mixing the two sources is the root of most errors.

The full paradigm

The relative pronouns are almost identical to the definite article, with three forms that diverge. Learn the whole table and note the bold cells especially.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	denen
Genitive	dessen	deren	dessen	deren

Three cells differ from the ordinary article: the dative plural is denen, not den; and the genitive is dessen (masculine and neuter) and deren (feminine and plural), not des/der. Everywhere else the relative pronoun looks just like the article you already know. Those four divergent forms — denen, dessen, deren — are the ones to drill.

Working through the cases

Nominative — the pronoun is the subject

Das ist die Kollegin, die das Projekt leitet.

That's the colleague who is running the project. (fem. from Kollegin; nominative subject of 'leitet')

Ich habe Freunde, die in Berlin wohnen.

I have friends who live in Berlin. (plural from Freunde; nominative subject of 'wohnen')

Accusative — the pronoun is the direct object

Das Buch, das ich gerade lese, ist spannend.

The book (that) I'm reading right now is gripping. (neut. from Buch; accusative object of 'lese')

Here is a subtle point worth pausing on. In die Kollegin, die … the die is nominative (subject), but in das Buch, das … the das is accusative (object). Same shape as the article, but the case is set by the internal role — feminine and neuter just happen to have identical nominative and accusative forms.

Dative — indirect object, dative verb, or dative plural denen

Die Frau, der ich das Paket gegeben habe, war sehr freundlich.

The woman (to whom) I gave the parcel was very friendly. (fem. dative)

Das sind die Nachbarn, denen wir den Schlüssel anvertraut haben.

These are the neighbours (to whom) we entrusted the key. (plural dative → denen)

That second sentence is the one to remember: a dative-plural relative is denen, never den. den would be read as accusative masculine singular.

Genitive — the pronoun shows possession

Der Autor, dessen Roman gerade erschienen ist, liest heute Abend.

The author whose novel has just come out is giving a reading this evening. (masc. genitive → dessen)

Die Stadt, deren Altstadt wir besichtigt haben, liegt am Rhein.

The city whose old town we visited lies on the Rhine. (fem. genitive → deren)

Note that dessen and deren take no further ending and the following noun appears without an article: dessen Roman, deren Altstadt — the genitive relative already does the work of "whose." This is English "whose" expressed by the case of the pronoun.

Word order: the verb goes to the end

A German relative clause is a subordinate clause, so its conjugated verb moves to the final position. This is the single biggest structural difference from English, where the relative clause keeps ordinary word order (the man who called yesterday — verb right after "who").

Das ist der Mann, der gestern angerufen hat.

That's the man who called yesterday. (hat — the finite verb — sits at the very end)

Kennst du die Frau, die neben dem Bürgermeister sitzt?

Do you know the woman who is sitting next to the mayor? (sitzt at the end)

In der gestern angerufen hat, English puts "called" right after "who"; German pushes the finite hat to the back and keeps angerufen just before it. A comma always introduces the relative clause — there is no comma-less option in German, unlike English "that"-clauses.

Contrast with English

English relative pronouns are impoverished by comparison. That and which don't change at all; who shows a faint case contrast with whom that most speakers ignore in speech; and whose covers possession for people and things alike. English also lets you drop the pronoun entirely in object position (the book I'm reading) and never sends the verb to the end. German does none of this: the pronoun is obligatory, it agrees in gender and number with its antecedent, it carries a visible case from its internal role, and the verb is verb-final. The mental habit to build is precisely the two-source split — gender from outside, case from inside — because nothing in the English sentence will prompt it for you.

Common Mistakes

❌ Das ist der Mann, der hat gestern angerufen.

Incorrect — a relative clause is subordinate, so the verb must go to the end.

✅ Das ist der Mann, der gestern angerufen hat.

That's the man who called yesterday.

❌ Der Mann, der ich kenne, wohnt nebenan.

Incorrect — inside the clause he is the *object* of kenne, so the case is accusative: den, not der.

✅ Der Mann, den ich kenne, wohnt nebenan.

The man (whom) I know lives next door.

❌ Das sind die Nachbarn, den wir den Schlüssel gegeben haben.

Incorrect — dative plural relative is denen, not den.

✅ Das sind die Nachbarn, denen wir den Schlüssel gegeben haben.

These are the neighbours we gave the key to.

❌ Der Autor dessen Roman gerade erschienen ist liest heute.

Incorrect — a comma must introduce the relative clause (and close it).

✅ Der Autor, dessen Roman gerade erschienen ist, liest heute.

The author whose novel just came out is reading today.

❌ Das Buch, die ich lese, ist gut.

Incorrect — gender comes from the antecedent Buch (neuter), so it's das, not die.

✅ Das Buch, das ich lese, ist gut.

The book I'm reading is good.

Key Takeaways

The relative pronoun takes its gender and number from the antecedent (outside) and its case from its role inside the clause.
The paradigm matches the definite article except for four forms: dative plural denen and genitive dessen (m/n) / deren (f/pl).
The genitive relative dessen/deren means "whose" and is followed by a noun with no article.
A relative clause is subordinate, so the finite verb goes to the end, and a comma is obligatory before the pronoun.
English gives no cue for case (who/that/which) — make the case decision consciously from the internal role.

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