Word
Alles, was wir hier sehen, ist wunderschön.
Meaning
Everything that we see here is beautiful.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Alles, was wir hier sehen, ist wunderschön.
Why do we use 'was' here instead of the regular relative pronoun 'das' for 'that'?
When a relative clause refers back to an indefinite pronoun like alles (everything), etwas (something), or nichts (nothing), German uses was instead of a regular relative pronoun like das. Because alles doesn't refer to a specific noun with a gender, was acts as a neutral 'that' or 'which'.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb 'ist'?
In German main clauses, the conjugated verb must be in the second position. Here, the entire chunk Alles, was wir hier sehen acts as the first position (the subject). So, the verb ist immediately follows it to take the second position.
Why is 'sehen' at the very end of the comma-separated part?
The phrase was wir hier sehen is a relative clause (a dependent clause that describes alles). In German dependent clauses, the conjugated verb is always pushed to the very end.
Are the commas strictly necessary around 'was wir hier sehen'?
Yes! In German, subordinate clauses like this relative clause must always be separated by commas from the main clause. You cannot drop the commas like you sometimes do in English.