Word
Das Kind, das den Dieb beobachtet, weint.
Meaning
The child who is observing the thief is crying.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Das Kind, das den Dieb beobachtet, weint.
das Kind
the child
weinen
to cry
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Dieb
the thief
Questions & Answers about Das Kind, das den Dieb beobachtet, weint.
Why do we use das as the word for "who" here?
In German, the relative pronoun must match the gender of the noun it describes. Because it refers back to das Kind (a neuter noun), we use the neuter relative pronoun das. Even though we say "who" in English, German uses definite articles as relative pronouns.
Why are the verbs beobachtet and weint right next to each other?
The main sentence is Das Kind weint (The child is crying). We interrupted it right after the subject to insert the relative clause. Relative clauses always push their conjugated verb to the very end, which places beobachtet right before the comma. After the comma, the main clause simply finishes with its own verb, weint.
Why does the sentence use den Dieb instead of der Dieb?
Inside the relative clause, the child (das) is the subject doing the observing. The thief is the object being observed, so it must be in the accusative case. Since Dieb is a masculine noun, its article changes to den.
Are both commas required in this sentence?
Yes! Unlike in English, where commas around "who" clauses are sometimes left out, German punctuation rules strictly require commas at the beginning and end of a relative clause to separate it from the main sentence.