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German Grammar: Relativpronomen, Plusquamperfekt, and N-Deklination
Relativpronomen “was” und “wo”
In German, the relative pronouns “was” and “wo” are used to refer back to indefinite pronouns or entire clauses (“was”) and to indicate locations (“wo”). Here are some examples:
| Pronoun | German Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| was | Das ist alles, was ich dir sagen wollte. | That is everything that I wanted to tell you. |
| was | Es gibt nichts, was mich mehr interessiert. | There is nothing that interests me more. |
| was | Etwas, was sie nicht verstanden haben, ist wichtig. | Something that they didn’t understand is important. |
| wo | Das ist der Ort, wo wir uns das erste Mal trafen. | That is the place where we met for the first time. |
| wo | Kennst du das Café, wo wir letztes Jahr waren? | Do you know the café where we were last year? |
| wo | Der Tag, wo alles begann, war unvergesslich. | The day when everything began was unforgettable. |
Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect Tense)
The Plusquamperfekt is used to describe actions that were completed before another past action. Here are some examples:
| Context | German Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Action completed before another | Nachdem er gegessen hatte, ging er ins Bett. | After he had eaten, he went to bed. |
| Sequence of past events | Bevor sie zur Arbeit ging, hatte sie die Nachrichten gehört. | Before she went to work, she had listened to the news. |
| Background action before another | Ich hatte das Auto geparkt, bevor es zu regnen begann. | I had parked the car before it started to rain. |
| Past of a past action | Sie hatte den Brief geschrieben, bevor sie ging. | She had written the letter before she left. |
| Earlier past action | Wir hatten den Film gesehen, bevor wir darüber sprachen. | We had watched the movie before we talked about it. |
| Consequence of a past action | Er hatte den Schlüssel verloren, deshalb kam er zu spät. | He had lost the key, that’s why he was late. |
N-Deklination (N-Declension)
N-Deklination affects certain masculine nouns that add an “-n” or “-en” ending in the accusative, dative, and genitive cases, except for the nominative singular. Here are some examples:
| Noun Type | Nominative (Nom.) | Accusative (Akk.) | Dative (Dat.) | Genitive (Gen.) | Example Sentence | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine (-e ending) | der Junge | den Jungen | dem Jungen | des Jungen | Ich sehe den Jungen. | I see the boy. |
| Profession (-ent ending) | der Student | den Studenten | dem Studenten | des Studenten | Wir haben mit dem Studenten gesprochen. | We spoke with the student. |
| Nationality (-e ending) | der Franzose | den Franzosen | dem Franzosen | des Franzosen | Des Franzosen Buch ist interessant. | The Frenchman’s book is interesting. |
| Animal (-e ending) | der Löwe | den Löwen | dem Löwen | des Löwen | Ich habe den Löwen im Zoo gesehen. | I saw the lion at the zoo. |
| Title (-ent ending) | der Präsident | den Präsidenten | dem Präsidenten | des Präsidenten | Das ist die Rede des Präsidenten. | That is the speech of the president. |
| Other (-ist ending) | der Polizist | den Polizisten | dem Polizisten | des Polizisten | Dem Polizisten wurde geholfen. | The policeman was helped. |
