B1 → Grammar · Lesson 10 of 23

German Relative Clauses in Nominativ, Akkusativ & Dativ

der Relativsatz

Before this lesson: make sure you've covered Infinitive Constructions first.

A2 introduced relative clauses with der/die/das in Nominativ and Akkusativ. B1 completes the picture with Dativ, so you can describe people and things no matter what role they play in their own clause.

See it in action

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominativ	der	die	das	die
Akkusativ	den	die	das	die
Dativ	dem	der	dem	denen

Examples

German	English
Das ist der Mann, der in Berlin wohnt.	That's the man who lives in Berlin. (Nominativ — subject)
Das ist der Mann, den ich kenne.	That's the man (whom) I know. (Akkusativ — object)
Das ist der Mann, dem ich geholfen habe.	That's the man (whom) I helped. (Dativ — helfen takes Dativ)

Memory trick: Ask yourself what JOB the person/thing plays inside its OWN clause, ignoring the main sentence completely — that job decides the case, exactly like any other sentence.

⚠ Common mistake: Don't pick the relative pronoun's case from the main clause — "Der Mann, den ich geholfen habe" is wrong because helfen needs Dativ: it must be "dem ich geholfen habe".

🎯 Quick check

Which relative pronoun completes: 'Das ist die Frau, ___ ich geholfen habe.'? (helfen = Dativ)

German Relative Clauses in Nominativ, Akkusativ & Dativ

See it in action

Examples

🎯 Quick check

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