Video 26: Relativsätze (Relative Clauses) with Cases and Fixed-Preposition Verbs

Source: Roughly 1 hour 52 minutes total, but only the first ~57 minutes contain teaching content — after that the transcript is almost entirely silence/filler ("Thank you") through the end, suggesting students were working independently or the recording continued after active teaching wound down. Approximate topic ranges:

• 00:00–02:13 — Silence/opening (skipped, pure logistics)
• 02:13–03:00 — Brief mention of "Arbeitswelt" topic, then more silence (skipped)
• 02:54–04:00 — Quick vocabulary check: Bargeld, Fingerabdruck, überzeugen, Haut — extracted below
• 04:00–10:20 — Clock-time expressions: halb, viertel vor/nach, the difference between "time" and "duration in hours" — extracted below
• 10:20–13:00 — Short phrase etwas gemeinsam unternehmen, then transition into homework/test logistics about the ~70 fixed-preposition verbs (skipped, logistics)
• 13:23–22:40 — Correction of a Wechselverb-heavy reading text about "the city of the future" (genitive forms, plural Komposita like Theater/Parkplatz, dative plural) — extracted below
• 22:40–56:50 — Main topic: Relativsätze (relative clauses) — the step-by-step method for finding gender/case, worked examples in nominative/accusative/dative, and relative clauses built around verbs with fixed prepositions — extracted below, this is the bulk of the class
• 56:50–end (~1:52:00) — Largely silence/filler with almost no further teaching content (brief homework mention "we have a chapter 3" near the very end); skipped as it contains nothing substantive to extract

Topics Covered

• Quick vocabulary: Bargeld, Fingerabdruck, überzeugen, Haut
• Clock-time expressions: halb, Viertel vor/nach, and time vs. duration
• Wechselverb reading-text correction recap: genitive forms, plural Komposita, dative plural
• Relativsätze (relative clauses): the "common thing → gender → case" method
• Relative pronoun table application in nominative, accusative, and dative
• Relative clauses with verbs that take fixed prepositions (mit, auf, über, bei)
• Why nominative prepositions don't exist, and what that means for relative clauses with prepositions

Vocabulary Check

A quick rapid-fire vocabulary drill:

• das Bargeld — cash
• der Fingerabdruck — fingerprint
• überzeugen — to convince (also drilled: überzeugt — convinced)
• die Haut — skin
• etwas gemeinsam unternehmen — to undertake/do something together

Clock-Time Expressions (Uhrzeit)

A review of how to express times that fall on the half-hour and quarter-hour, and the distinction between time and duration.

• eine halbe Stunde — half an hour (a duration). Written as one complete word, no gap: eine halbe Stunde.
• eineinhalb Stunden — one and a half hours (also one complete word, no gap: eineinhalb).
• zweieinhalb (Stunden) — two and a half hours.
• dreieinhalb (Stunden) — three and a half hours.
• Distinguishing time-of-day from duration: halb drei is used for clock time (2:30), e.g. Unser Kurs ist um halb drei — "Our class is at 2:30." By contrast, zweieinhalb Stunden expresses a duration, e.g. Ich komme in zweieinhalb Stunden — "I'm coming in two and a half hours" — this is not a clock time, it's a length of time.
• Quarter-hour expressions — two equivalent ways to say 2:45:
  • Viertel nach halb drei — literally "a quarter after half-three" (i.e., 15 minutes after 2:30)
  • Viertel vor drei — "a quarter before three" (i.e., 15 minutes before 3:00)
  • Both refer to the same time, 2:45; vor means "before."

Wechselverb Reading-Text Correction (City of the Future)

A continuation/recap of correcting a cloze exercise about a city in the year 2050, rich in Wechselverben (two-way prepositions) and genitive forms.

• Im Jahr 2050 werden die Menschen fast nur noch Leihautos fahren — "In the year 2050, people will almost only drive rental/shared cars."
• Es wird weniger Fahrzeuge in den Städten geben als heute — "There will be fewer vehicles in the cities than today." (Comparative als = "than.")
• Es wird mehr Radwege geben, und man kann besser mit dem Fahrrad zum Arbeitsplatz fahren — "There will be more bicycle lanes, and one can better cycle to the workplace."
• In den einzelnen Stadtviertel(n) findet man alle Dinge, die man braucht — "In the individual city districts one finds all the things one needs." The class noted Stadtviertel appears in the dative plural here, because masculine accusative and dative plural are the only two grammatically possible options for that ending pattern, and masculine accusative didn't fit, so it had to be dative plural.
• Das Theater — plural is die Theater, but in this text it was written with an extra -n ending because of dative plural -n declension (a noun in dative plural sometimes needs an added -n, regardless of whether its own plural form already looks the same as the singular/nominative plural).
• Parkplätze — parking spaces (used in correlation with Einrichtungen — facilities — as two valid answers in one blank, since both fit the sentence about things found nearby: hairdresser, bakery, laundry, etc.)
• Friseur — hairdresser/hair salon; Wäscherei — laundry; Bäckerei — bakery — all examples of nearby neighborhood services (Einrichtungen).
• Auf den Parkplätzen, die man nicht mehr braucht, kann man Wohnhäuser bauen — "On the parking lots that are no longer needed, one can build residential buildings." Parkplätzen here is dative plural, marked again with -n.
• Der Strom entsteht durch die Solarzellen auf den Dächern — "The electricity originates from the solar cells on the roofs."
• Um die Lebensqualität der Menschen zu verbessern, wird es mehr Parks geben — "In order to improve people's quality of life, there will be more parks." — Lebensqualität = quality of life; Ökobalanz type vocabulary recurring from prior classes.

Relativsätze (Relative Clauses): The Method

This was the main and most substantial topic of the class. The teacher presented a three-step method for filling in relative pronouns, used throughout as an alternative/complement to the "who/whom" translation approach taught previously.

The Three Steps

1. Find the common thing shared between the main clause and the relative clause (the noun being described).
2. Check the gender of that common thing from the first sentence (the main clause).
3. Check the case of the relative pronoun from the second sentence (the relative clause) — i.e., from how the common thing functions grammatically inside the relative clause (subject, object, or with a preposition).

"Find the common thing in both the sentences. Check gender from the house — that is the first sentence — and check the case from the second sentence."

Worked Examples

• Es gibt einen Platz, den ich besonders mag. — "There is a place that I especially like." Common thing: Platz (masculine). Case from 2nd sentence: accusative (object of mag) → den.
• Dort ist auch das Café, das mein Freund kennt. — "There is also the café that my friend knows." Common thing: Café (neuter — confirmed as nominative/accusative neuter, not dative, since the relative pronoun here is the object of kennt) → das.
• In dem Café gibt es den besten Kuchen, den man in dieser Stadt finden kann. — "In that café there is the best cake that one can find in this city." Note on man: man is always nominative — it can never appear in accusative or dative form, so once man (nominative) is identified in the clause, whatever blank remains must be the accusative or dative slot, since nominative is already taken.
• Ich treffe meinen Cousin, der ganz in der Nähe wohnt. — "I'm meeting my cousin, who lives very close by." Common thing: Cousin (masculine). Case from 2nd sentence: nominative (subject of wohnt) → der.
• In der Nähe des Platzes ist eine große Grünfläche, die alle Kinder gern nutzen. — "Near the square there is a large green space that all children like to use." → die (feminine, accusative, object of nutzen).
• Es gibt auch Geschäfte, die schöne und nützliche Dinge verkaufen. — "There are also shops that sell beautiful and useful things." Common thing: Geschäfte (plural). The teacher emphasized using the who/whom logic to identify the subject: shops can't be sold to in this sentence — shops do the selling, so Geschäfte is the subject, hence nominative, hence die (not denen, which a student initially guessed). Second confirming method: the verb ending -en signals a plural subject, and German always conjugates the verb to match its subject — so the relative pronoun must be the plural nominative form that matches that conjugation.
  • Important clarification: when the "common thing" sentence (sentence 1) itself contains a verb like gibt (from es gibt + accusative), that case does not carry over to the relative pronoun. Es gibt Geschäfte uses Geschäfte as the accusative object of gibt, but that's irrelevant for the relative clause — only the second sentence determines the case of the relative pronoun. The first sentence is only used to identify the common word and its gender.

Extended Practice Examples

• Es gibt einen Mann, der dort mit dem Mädchen steht. — "There is a man who is standing there with the girl." Common thing: Mann (masculine). Case: nominative (subject of steht) → der.
• Ich treffe meinen Bruder, der meinen Kindern hilft. — "I'm meeting my brother, who is helping my children." Common thing: Bruder (masculine). Case: nominative (subject of hilft) → der.
• Ich lade meinen Onkel ein, dem mein Freund gratuliert. — "I'm inviting my uncle, whom my friend is congratulating." Common thing: Onkel (masculine). Case: dative (because gratulieren takes the dative) → dem.
• Das sind die Kinder, denen ich gratuliere. — "These are the children whom I am congratulating [they passed the exam]." Common thing: Kinder (plural). Case: dative (gratulieren + Dativ) → denen (dative plural relative pronoun).
  • Contrast given: Das sind die Kinder, die Eis essen. — "These are the children who are eating ice cream." Here the case is nominative (subject of essen) → die, not denen — showing how the same antecedent can take a different relative pronoun depending on its role in the second clause.

Relative Clauses with Verbs That Have Fixed Prepositions

The lesson's harder/newer layer: when the relative clause's verb is a fixed-preposition verb, the preposition itself determines the case (not a "by who/whom" guess), and that preposition is placed directly before the relative pronoun.

• Er ist mein Freund, mit dem ich gestern über das Wetter gesprochen habe. — "He is my friend with whom I spoke about the weather yesterday." Fixed-preposition verb: sprechen mit (+ Dativ). Gender from sentence 1 (Freund, masculine) + case from the preposition mit (dative) → mit dem. Word order note: since this is a Nebensatz (subordinate clause) in Perfekt, the conjugated helping verb habe goes to the very end, after the participle gesprochen.
• Sie ist meine Freundin, auf die ich hier warte. — "She is my friend for whom I'm waiting here." Fixed-preposition verb: warten auf (+ Akkusativ). Gender: feminine (Freundin) + case: accusative (from auf) → auf die.
• Ich rede mit meinem Freund, bei dem ich mich gestern entschuldigt habe. — "I'm talking to my friend, whom I apologized to yesterday." Fixed-preposition verb: sich entschuldigen bei (+ Dativ). Gender: masculine + case: dative → bei dem.
• Mein Kurs beginnt um 8 Uhr, an dem ich heute teilnehme. — "My class starts at 8 o'clock, in which I am participating today." Fixed-preposition verb: teilnehmen an (+ Dativ). Gender: masculine (Kurs) + case: dative → an dem. Note on word order: teilnehmen is a trennbares Verb (separable verb), but it is not split here because the clause is a Nebensatz (relative clause) — in a Nebensatz the conjugated verb moves to the end and stays joined with its prefix: ...an dem ich heute teilnehme (written together, no gap).
• Es gibt eine Party am Montag, auf die ich mich freue. — "There is a party on Monday to which I am looking forward." Fixed-preposition verb: sich freuen auf (+ Akkusativ). Gender: feminine (Party) + case: accusative → auf die. Verb goes to the end of the clause: ...auf die ich mich freue.
• Ich habe ein Geschenk bekommen, über das ich mich sehr freue. — "I've gotten a gift about which I am very happy." Fixed-preposition verb: sich freuen über (+ Akkusativ). Gender: neuter (Geschenk) + case: accusative → über das.

Why Nominative Is Never Used After a Preposition

Reviewing the set of examples above (mit dem, auf die, bei dem, an dem, auf die, über das), the teacher pointed out that none of them were nominative — and asked the class why.

• Answer: nominative prepositions don't exist. German prepositions are categorized as accusative prepositions (für, um, durch, bis, etc.), dative prepositions (von, aus, nach, zu, bei, mit, etc.), or Wechselpräpositionen (an, auf, hinter, unter, etc.) — there is no category of "nominative preposition."
• Consequence for relative clauses: whenever the relative pronoun follows a preposition, the case can never be nominative — it must be accusative, dative, genitive, or (for Wechsel-prepositions) determined by movement vs. location, but never nominative, because "the case is being determined by the preposition" and no preposition governs the nominative case.

Notes & Tips

• Time vs. duration: halb drei = a clock time (2:30); zweieinhalb Stunden = a duration (2.5 hours) — don't confuse the two when answering time-related exam questions.
• The three-step relative-clause method (common thing → gender from sentence 1 → case from sentence 2) is presented as an alternative, more mechanical method to the earlier "who/whom" translation trick — useful as a fallback when the English translation doesn't make the case obvious.
• man is always nominative — never accusative or dative — a quick way to rule out one slot when identifying the case of a remaining relative pronoun or article in a sentence.
• Only the second (relative) clause determines the relative pronoun's case — even if the first/ main clause's verb (e.g. es gibt + Akkusativ) happens to govern a case on the same noun, that case is irrelevant to the relative pronoun; only the antecedent's gender is taken from sentence 1.
• Trennbare Verben stay joined in a Nebensatz: a separable verb like teilnehmen is not split apart when it ends up at the end of a relative/subordinate clause — it's written as one word (...an dem ich teilnehme, not ...nehme ich an dem teil).
• No preposition governs the nominative case — a quick sanity check: if a relative pronoun follows any preposition (mit, auf, über, bei, an, etc.), it cannot be nominative; this is reinforced as foundational knowledge linking back to the accusative/dative/Wechsel-preposition categories from earlier in the course.
• The teacher flagged this relative-clause material as foundational for telc B1 and warned it will recur in later chapters (and again at B2.1) — students were told to ask questions now rather than let gaps persist, since "you will lose the control over this topic" otherwise.