Dative relative clauses (которому, которой)

Let's discuss professional coaching and the athletes we guide by learning how to use the relative pronoun который (who/which/that) in the Dative case.

Verbs That Take the Dative

In Russian, several verbs require their target to be in the Dative case. When talking about coaching, you will often use verbs like доверять (to trust), помогать (to help), советовать (to advise), and the phrase уделять внимание (to pay attention to).

When you build a relative clause—like saying "the player whom the coach trusts"—the relative pronoun replacing "player" must be in the Dative case because the verb in that part of the sentence (trusts) demands it.

Remember the golden rule of который: it gets its gender and number from the noun it modifies in the main sentence, but its case comes strictly from its role in its own clause.

Dative Forms of "который"

Here is how который changes in the Dative case:

Let's see these in action with masculine nouns like игрок (player) and чемпион (champion):

If we are talking about multiple players, we use the plural form которым:

And for feminine nouns like команда (team), we use которой:

The Preposition "к" + Dative

Certain actions and states pair with the preposition к (to/toward), which always takes the Dative case. Common examples in sports include готовиться к (to prepare for), идти к (to walk/move toward), and being готов к (ready for).

When a preposition is needed in a relative clause, it jumps directly in front of the relative pronoun.