Breakdown of Es ist offensichtlich der Tratsch, der die Beziehung zerstört.
sein
to be
es
it
die Beziehung
the relationship
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
zerstören
to destroy
offensichtlich
obvious
der Tratsch
the gossip
Questions & Answers about Es ist offensichtlich der Tratsch, der die Beziehung zerstört.
Why use the structure Es ist ... der ... instead of just saying Der Tratsch zerstört offensichtlich die Beziehung?
This is a cleft sentence (Spaltsatz). By splitting a normal sentence into two parts ("It is X that does Y"), you place a very strong emphasis on the noun right after Es ist. Here, it highlights that the gossip, and specifically not something else, is the true culprit.
The English translation uses the word "that". Why do we use der instead of dass here?
In German cleft sentences, the second half is actually a relative clause. It requires a relative pronoun that points directly back to the emphasized noun. Since Tratsch is masculine, we use the masculine relative pronoun der. The conjunction dass cannot be used because it only links clauses; it cannot replace a noun or act as a subject.
Why is the verb zerstört pushed to the very end of the sentence?
Because the second half of this cleft sentence (der die Beziehung zerstört) is a relative clause. Just like with most other subordinate clauses in German, the conjugated verb must be placed at the very end.
Both der Tratsch and the relative pronoun der are in the nominative case. Do the cases in both halves of a cleft sentence always match?
Not necessarily! The case of the relative pronoun depends entirely on its grammatical role in its own clause. Here, the gossip is doing the destroying, so der is the subject (nominative). However, if you wanted to say "It is the gossip that I hate", the relative pronoun would be the direct object: Es ist der Tratsch, den ich hasse.
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