Relative Clauses (Який, Що, Хто)

A relative clause is a whole sentence parked inside a noun phrase to describe a noun: "the house that we saw," "the woman I spoke with," "the city I was born in." English uses that, which, who, whom, whose — and constantly drops the word entirely ("the house we saw") and strands the preposition at the end ("the woman I spoke with"). Ukrainian does neither. Its main relativizer is який, and the single hardest thing about it for an English speaker is that it carries two grammatical signals at once: it agrees with the noun it points back to (gender and number), but it takes its case from the job it does inside its own clause. This page covers the syntax of the whole construction — how який is built, why the preposition has to move, when invariant що is enough, and how той, хто / те, що handle "the one who" and "the thing that." (For the pronoun forms themselves, see the relative pronouns page; here the focus is the clause.)

який: agreement from the antecedent, case from its own clause

The relative clause attaches to a noun in the main clause — the antecedent — and який stands in for that noun inside the subordinate clause. The two jobs split cleanly:

• Gender and number of який come from the antecedent. Point back to the noun: is it masculine, feminine, neuter, singular, plural? який copies that.
• Case of який comes from its role inside the relative clause — subject, direct object, object of a preposition, and so on.

Watch this in буди́нок, яки́й ми ба́чили "the house we saw." The antecedent буди́нок is masculine singular, so який is masculine singular. But inside the clause "we saw _," який is the direct object of ба́чили, so it takes the accusative — and буди́нок is inanimate, so its accusative looks like the nominative: яки́й. Now change the antecedent to a feminine noun and watch the form shift while the role stays the same:

To see the two signals move independently, hold the antecedent fixed and change only the clause role:

The preposition fronts — Ukrainian never strands

This is the point English speakers miss most often. English drops the preposition at the very end of the relative clause: "the woman I spoke with," "the city I was born in." Ukrainian cannot do this. The preposition stands directly in front of який, the two move as a unit, and який takes whatever case that preposition governs. "The woman I spoke with" is жі́нка, з яко́ю я говори́в — з яко́ю together, instrumental — and never *жі́нка, яку́ я говори́в з. There is no orphan preposition at the end of the clause, ever.

This gives you the very common bundles з яки́м / з яко́ю "with which," в яко́му / у які́й "in which," до яко́го "to which," про яки́й "about which," на яку́ "onto which." The preposition decides the case; the antecedent decides the gender and number.

що — the light, invariant relativizer

Beside який there is що "that / which," which here is invariable: it does not decline, does not agree, does not change for case. It is lighter and more colloquial than який, and it is at its best when the relative word is the subject or the direct object of its clause — exactly the roles where no case-marking on the relativizer is needed. Кни́га, що лежи́ть тут "the book that's lying here" is completely natural.

The catch is built into the word: because що can't inflect, it cannot by itself carry an oblique case — it can't go genitive, can't sit after a preposition. When the relative role needs a preposition or an oblique case, speakers either switch to який (which inflects freely) or prop up що with a resumptive pronoun — a little його́, її́, з ним — that carries the case, as in the second example. For clean writing in oblique roles, reach for який; let що shine in subject and object roles and in conversation.

той, хто / те, що — headless and correlative relatives

Sometimes there is no noun antecedent at all — you mean "the one who," "whoever," "those who," "the thing that," "what." Ukrainian builds these with хто "who" (for people) and що "what / that which" (for things), almost always anchored by a demonstrative in the main clause: той, хто "the one who," ті, хто "those who," те, що "that which / what." The demonstrative and the relativizer form a correlative pair — той...хто, те...що — one in the main clause, one launching the subordinate clause.

Note that each half of the pair takes its own case from its own clause: in того́, що ти сказа́в, того́ is genitive (object of the negated main verb) while що is the object inside the subordinate clause — two separate clauses, two separate case assignments.

котрий — the formal stand-in

котри́й / котра́ / котре́ / котрі́ can replace який as a relativizer, but it sounds more formal and bookish and is much rarer in speech. Use який by default; recognise котрий in older or elevated prose and official style.

The comma is not optional

A relative clause in Ukrainian is always set off by a comma — there is no comma-dropping and no relativizer-dropping. Буди́нок, яки́й ми ба́чили must have the comma before яки́й; Кни́га, що лежи́ть тут must have it before що. English lets you write "the house we saw" with nothing at all — no word, no comma. Ukrainian never omits both; in fact it never omits the comma at all. If the relative clause sits inside the main clause, it is fenced off with commas on both sides.

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, three resets. (1) який agrees AND inflects at the same time — gender/number from the antecedent, case from its own clause (жі́нка, з яко́ю я говори́в) — where English "who/which" carries neither. (2) No stranding — the preposition fronts (мі́сто, в яко́му я народи́вся), never the English "the city I was born in" with the preposition dangling. (3) No dropping — English freely deletes "that" ("the house we saw"), but Ukrainian keeps the relativizer and always keeps the comma.

For a Russian speaker, the main relativizer is який (Ukrainian), not the Russian который; the light invariant option is що, not что; and the headless pair is той, хто / те, що. Build the forms from the Ukrainian paradigm (яку́, яко́го, з яко́ю), not the Russian one.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• який is the main relativizer: it agrees with the antecedent (gender, number) but takes its case from its own clause (кварти́ра, яку́ ми ба́чили — feminine + accusative).
• Prepositions front який — з яко́ю, в яко́му, до яко́го — and are never stranded the English way.
• що is an invariant, colloquial "that," best as the subject or object of its clause; switch to який (or add a resumptive pronoun) for oblique roles.
• той, хто / те, що build headless / correlative relatives ("the one who," "what"), each half taking its own case.
• котрий is the formal variant; the comma before (and around) a relative clause is always required.