Exploring the Botanical Garden
When examining rare plants, you will often need to describe them by their specific parts, such as their roots, stems, or seeds. To do this, you use a possessive relative clause tailored for inanimate objects.
Possessive Relative Clauses for Objects: waarvan
You recently learned to use van wie (whose) to describe people. However, when talking about things or inanimate objects—like a tree or a plant species—you must use waarvan (literally: of what / of which).
Just like other relative pronouns, waarvan introduces a subclause, meaning all verbs within the relative clause move to the very end.
| The researcher describes a species whose history is unknown. | De onderzoeker beschrijft een soort waarvan de geschiedenis onbekend is. |
| This is the tree whose trunk and roots are very thick. | Dit is de boom waarvan de stam en de wortels heel dik zijn. |
Mid-Sentence waarvan Clauses
If the object you are describing is the subject of your main sentence, the waarvan clause will interrupt the main sentence.
Because the subclause pushes its verbs to the end, and the main clause immediately resumes with its own verb, you will typically see two verbs right next to each other, separated by a comma.
| The plant whose stems have a sweet scent smells wonderful. | De plant waarvan de stengels een zoete geur hebben, ruikt heerlijk. |
| The flowers whose thorns are getting increasingly larger are dangerous. | De bloemen waarvan de doorns steeds groter worden, zijn gevaarlijk. |
| The stem whose thorns are soft is safe. | De stengel waarvan de doorns zacht zijn, is veilig. |