Directional relative clauses (wohin, woher)

Languages are always evolving. Words travel across borders and cultures, bringing new meanings with them. To describe the places where these loanwords come from and where they go, German uses directional relative clauses.

Tracing origins with woher

When you want to describe the origin or source of a noun (like a country or a place), you do not use standard relative pronouns like der, die, or das. Instead, German uses the directional word woher (where from) as the relative pronoun.

Notice that just like any other relative clause, the woher clause is separated from the main sentence by a comma, and the conjugated verb (stammt, kommt) is pushed to the very end of the clause.

Tracing destinations with wohin

When describing the destination or direction that something is moving towards, use wohin (where to) as your relative pronoun.

You will often see wohin used with verbs that express spreading or expansion, especially when discussing cultural exchange.

Interrupting the main sentence

Relative clauses don't just sit at the end of a sentence. Often, you will want to describe the subject of your main sentence. When this happens, the woher or wohin clause interrupts the main sentence directly after the noun it describes.

Just remember: place commas on both sides of the relative clause, and make sure its conjugated verb goes directly before the second comma!