A perfect explanation of relative clauses in German with step by step instructions on how to form it. I have included really high level examples that will ensure you get a grade 9 in your writing and speaking- some of the material is A level material which will definitely impress your teacher.
What are relative clauses and how are they used?
These clauses are fairly simple to use once you get your head around them. If used
correctly can really help to make your writing more stylish.
They are used when you want to say “which” or “who”, so when you want to add
more information without having to write another sentence. The easiest way to
explain is to show you the difference between using two sentences and using one
sentence with a relative clause:
2 sentences without a relative clause: The man goes to the shop everyday. The man
likes apples.
2 Sätze ohne Relativsatz: Der Mann geht jeden Tag in den Laden. Der Mann mag
Äpfel.
1 sentence with a relative clause highlighted: The man, who likes apples, goes to the
shop every day.
1 Satz mit einem hervorgehobenen Relativsatz: Der Mann, der Äpfel mag, geht
jeden Tag in den Laden.
How do you form relative clauses?
1. To form the relative clause, you have to determine the subject of the
sentence. This is the word that ‘does’ the action. So you have to ask yourself
‘who’ or ‘what’ is doing the action. In the previous example, the man is the
subject as he is eating the apple. With relative clauses, you can determine
the subject just by simply working out what the relative clause relates to. In
the previous example, the relative clause is about the man as he is the one
who likes apples.
2. Once you have determined the subject, all you have to do is know the gender
of the word. This gives you the relative pronoun, or simply put, which form of
“the” to use (der, die or das). In the example, the man is masculine, so
therefore the relative pronoun will be “der”. (der Mann, der Äpfel mag). The
relative pronoun is highlighted.
3. After this, it is pretty easy to form a relative clause. All you have to do is send
the verb to the end of the clause, and keep everything else in the sentence
the same. In the example, the verb is mögen, in the third person, so ‘mag’ in
this case, so it is at the end of the clause.
What are some high level examples?
Here are some examples that you can memorise and throw into your writing, I have
made an example that relates to each GCSE topic.
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