Video 44: Relativsätze mit was, wo, woher, wohin

Source: Roughly 1 hour 58 minutes total, but most of the recording after ~00:53 is silence/ filler ("Thank you." placeholders every ~30 seconds while the teacher shares notes on screen) or brief logistics. Approximate topic ranges:

• 00:00–07:06 — Logistics/roll call, workbook page reference, and a recap drill on basic relative pronouns (nominative/accusative identification, examples with der Nachbar, Moritz, Freunde, eine Kneipe) — partially extracted below (the recap content, not the logistics)
• 07:07–14:03 — Review of the relative pronoun table (der/das/die/die declension) and relative clauses with prepositions (mit dem, in das/in dem with Wechselpräposition + SDMA rule) — extracted below
• 14:03–22:01 — Transition/setup chat and country prepositions (nach, in, aus) aside — partially extracted below
• 22:01–34:40 — Main new topic: Relativsätze mit was — rule, indefinite pronoun list, and worked examples — extracted below
• 34:40–44:30 — Main new topic: Relativsätze mit wo, woher, wohin — rule and worked examples — extracted below
• 44:30–53:12 — Worked example sentences from a written text (Berlin-themed practice passage) using da/wo/was in context, brief adverb-vs-adjective aside — extracted below
• 53:12–end — Homework assignment (workbook exercises on was/wo relative clauses) and long silence/screen-sharing issues — skipped

Topics Covered

• Recap: relative pronoun table (nominative/accusative/dative across der/das/die/die) and relative clauses with prepositions (mit dem, in dem/in das)
• Relativsätze mit was — used with indefinite pronouns (alles, etwas, nichts, manches, vieles) and when the relative clause refers back to a whole preceding sentence (gesamter Hauptsatz)
• viel vs. vieler vs. vieles — usage distinction (uncountable noun / countable noun / standalone pronoun)
• Relativsätze mit wo, woher, wohin — relative clauses referring to places, distinguishing stationary location, direction of movement, and origin/place of exit
• Worked text example combining da (causal connector, sounding like a relative pronoun in context), wo, and was in natural sentences

Recap: Relative Pronouns and Cases

The class opened by re-drilling how to identify the case of a relative pronoun using wer/wen ("who"/"whom") logic:

• Nominative answers who; accusative answers whom.
• Da ist ein Nachbar, der meine Blumen wässert. — "There is a neighbor who waters my flowers." (der — nominative, masculine, neighbor is the one doing the watering)
• ..., den ich jeden Morgen sehe — "...whom I see every morning" (den — accusative, masculine)
• ..., mit dem ich jeden Morgen spreche — "...with whom I speak every morning" (dative, because the verb/preposition combination sprechen mit takes dative)
• Das ist Moritz, den ich schon sehr lange kenne. — "This is Moritz, whom I have known for a very long time." (den — accusative, masculine — even though ich is already the nominative of the clause, the relative pronoun referring to Moritz must take the case required by the verb, here accusative for kennen)
• Ich spiele Fußball mit Freunden, mit denen ich viel Spaß habe. — "I play football with friends, with whom I have a lot of fun." (denen — dative plural, because Spaß haben mit takes dative)
• Am Ende der Straße ist eine Kneipe, der ein Sniper-Laden... / die einem... gehört. — working through: a pub at the corner that belongs to someone. Since gehören takes dative, and eine Kneipe is feminine, the correct relative pronoun is der (dative feminine) — "...the pub that belongs to..." The teacher explicitly corrected a learner mix-up here: a person cannot "belong to" a place — rather a pub can belong to a person — so the relative clause must be phrased as die Kneipe, die... gehört / der... gehört, with gehören governing the dative case.

Relative pronoun table (reviewed)

The standard relative-pronoun declension table, identical to the definite article except in the dative plural:

Case	Maskulin	Neutrum	Feminin	Plural
Nominativ	der	das	die	die
Akkusativ	den	das	die	die
Dativ	dem	dem	der	denen

• The one exception flagged versus the plain definite article: the relative pronoun's dative plural is denen, not den.
• Example with preposition: Es gibt einen Mann, mit dem ich spreche. — "There is a man with whom I am talking." Here the preposition decides the case: mit is always dative, so the relative pronoun is dem (masculine dative) regardless of the verb.

Aside: country prepositions (nach / in / aus)

While reviewing movement-based example sentences, the teacher briefly reused an earlier rule on prepositions with country names:

• Ich gehe nach Deutschland. Mein Freund kommt aus Deutschland. — most country names (no article) take nach for "going to" and aus for "coming from."
• Countries that do have an article (die Schweiz, der Iran, die USA, die Niederlande, etc.) take in instead of nach: Ich gehe in die Schweiz. — "I am going to Switzerland." / Mein Freund kommt aus der Schweiz. — "My friend comes from Switzerland" (aus still applies for origin even with article-countries).

Relativsätze mit was

Rule: A relative clause uses was instead of der/das/die when the antecedent ("the common thing" linking the two clauses) has no grammatical gender — i.e., it is not a concrete noun with an article. This happens in two situations:

1. The antecedent is an indefinite pronoun: alles, etwas, nichts, manches, vieles (and similar words). These don't have a der/das/die gender, so they can't be slotted into the regular relative-pronoun table.
2. The relative clause refers back to the entire preceding sentence/clause (the gesamter Hauptsatz) rather than to one specific noun.

This contrasts with ordinary relative clauses (taught at A2/B1 so far), where the shared antecedent does have a gender — e.g. der Mann (masculine), das Buch (neuter), das Telefon (neuter) — and the regular der/das/die/die table is used as normal.

Important restriction emphasized by the teacher: was is never used for persons — Mann, Frau, Herr, Kind, Vater etc. all have an article/gender and always take the regular relative pronoun, not was. was applies only to genderless indefinite pronouns or to whole-sentence reference.

Worked examples — indefinite pronoun antecedent

• Alles, was er gesagt hat, ist wahr. — "Everything he said is true." (alles is the genderless common element → was)
• Nichts, was heute passiert ist, ist überraschend. — "Nothing that happened today is surprising." (nichts → was)
• Vieles, was er gesagt hat, macht mich traurig. — "A lot of what he said makes me sad." (vieles → was)
• Ich sehe etwas, was du nicht siehst. — "I see something that you don't see." The teacher called this the easiest relative-clause type of the three covered so far, because — unlike clauses with prepositions (where the preposition tells you the case) or the basic der/das/die table (where you must track gender and case) — here you simply check whether the antecedent is indefinite, and if so just write was, with the verb sent to the end of the clause.
• Ich habe alles verstanden, was du heute erklärt hast. — "I have understood everything you explained today."

Worked example — referring to a whole sentence

• Ich habe einen neuen Job bekommen, was ich dir schon letztes Jahr sagen wollte. (paraphrased) — "I got a new job, which I wanted to tell you last year." Here was doesn't replace a single noun but the entire idea/fact of the preceding clause.
• Mein Freund kommt heute, was mich glücklich macht. — "My friend is coming today, which makes me happy." (was refers to the whole fact "my friend is coming today," not to Freund itself — contrast with Mein Freund, der heute kommt, macht mich glücklich, where der refers specifically to Freund, which has a gender.)
• Ich habe heute einen Computer gekauft, was mich glücklich macht. — "I bought a computer today, which makes me happy." — again referring to the whole action of buying, not to Computer alone.

viel vs. vieler vs. vieles

A short side-explanation on related forms:

• viel + uncountable noun: Ich habe viel Zeit. — "I have a lot of time." (Zeit is feminine but uncountable, so no -e/-er ending is added — a common learner mistake is to add an ending here.)
• viel + countable noun: Ich habe viele Kulis. — "I have a lot of pens." (countable → viele)
• vieles used standalone, as a pronoun with no noun following it: Ich habe vieles. — "I have a lot." Used alone (not attached to a noun), it is vieles, never viele on its own.
• Ich habe viel Geld. — money/currency itself is treated as uncountable in this context (you can count individual euros/rupees, but "money" as a mass noun takes viel, not viele).

Relativsätze mit wo, woher, wohin

Rule: Relative clauses referring to a place can use wo / woher / wohin instead of (or as an alternative to) a preposition + relative pronoun construction, similar to how English can say "where," "from where," "to where."

• wo — stationary location, no movement (parallel to the SDMA: Stationary = Dativ rule). Used when simply stating where something/someone is, regardless of tense (present, past, or future).
• wohin — direction of movement, "to where" (parallel to Movement = Akkusativ).
• woher — place of origin or place of exit, "from where."

These three words are used only with places — they cannot be used to replace a generic preposition + pronoun construction outside of location/direction/origin contexts.

Worked examples

• Wir gehen in das neue Restaurant. In diesem Restaurant gibt es Sushi. combined two ways:
  • With preposition + relative pronoun: Wir gehen in das neue Restaurant, in dem es Sushi gibt. (no movement involved in "there being sushi" → Wechselpräposition in + dative → in dem)
  • With wo (equally correct, since it's a place and there's no movement in the clause): Wir gehen in das neue Restaurant, wo es Sushi gibt. — "...where there is sushi."
• Das ist das Restaurant. Ich gehe in das Restaurant. → Das ist das Restaurant, in das ich gehe. (movement → accusative) or, using wohin: Das ist das Restaurant, wohin ich gehe. — "This is the restaurant (to) where I am going."
• Das ist ein Restaurant. Ich komme von dem Restaurant. → using woher for place of exit: Das ist das Restaurant, woher ich komme. — "This is the restaurant I am coming from."
• Das ist das Haus. Wir haben in dem Haus seit 10 Jahren gewohnt. — no movement (just living somewhere), so woher (origin) and wohin (direction) are both wrong here; only wo or the preposition form work: Das ist das Haus, wo wir seit 10 Jahren gewohnt haben / ..., in dem wir seit 10 Jahren gewohnt haben. — "This is the house where we have lived for 10 years."
• Future-tense example to show tense doesn't affect the choice of wo/wohin/woher: Das ist das Café, wo ich am Montag meinen Freund treffen werde. — "This is the café where I will meet my friend on Monday." Even in future tense, since meeting at the café is a stationary event (not a movement being described by the relative clause itself), wo is still correct.

Worked Text Example (Berlin practice passage)

A short written passage was used to drill recognition of da, wo, and was in connected text (the teacher clarified that here da is functioning as a causal connector — "since/because" — and should not be confused with a relative pronoun, while wo and was in the same passage are genuine relative-clause markers):

• In Berlin kann man viel unternehmen, was super ist. — "In Berlin you can do a lot, which is great." (was refers to the whole preceding statement)
• Alles, was man zum Leben braucht, gibt es hier. — "Everything you need for life is available here." (was with indefinite alles)
• Aber ich suche noch eine tolle Wohnung, da ich für ein paar Jahre bleiben kann. — "But I'm still looking for a great apartment, since/because I can stay for a few years." (da = causal "since," not a relative pronoun)
• Ich fand auch die Stadt gut, da ich mit meinen Freunden am Wochenende war. — "I also found the city good, since I was there with my friends on weekends." (da again causal)
• Für meine Freunde gab es dort aber fast nichts, was ihnen gefallen hat. — "But for my friends there was almost nothing that they liked." (was with indefinite nichts)
• Das, was ich ihnen gezeigt habe, fanden sie langweilig. — "What I showed them, they found boring." (was referring back to an unspecified "that")
• Am Abend haben wir ein paar Clubs gefunden und besucht, was sie super fanden. — "In the evening we found and visited a few clubs, which they thought was great." (was referring to the whole preceding clause)

Aside: adverb vs. adjective

A brief grammatical side-note while discussing word forms in the passage: the same word can function as an adverb or an adjective depending on context — e.g., meistens used with a verb (Ich komme meistens montags. — "I mostly come on Mondays") functions as an adverb, while a form used to describe a noun (die meisten Leute — "most people") functions as an adjective. Indefinite pronouns like die meisten are independent and don't need to attach to another word the way an adjective like "most" attaches to "people."

Notes & Tips

• was-relative clauses are the easiest of the three relative-clause types covered across the course (basic der/das/die table, preposition + relative pronoun, and was) — no case-tracking is needed; just check whether the antecedent is one of the indefinite pronouns (alles, etwas, nichts, manches, vieles) or whether the clause refers to the whole previous sentence, then use was and send the verb to the end.
• was is never used for persons — always check first whether the antecedent has a gender/article (Mann, Frau, Kind, etc.); if it does, use the regular der/das/die relative pronoun, not was.
• viel vs. viele vs. vieles: viel + uncountable noun (viel Zeit, viel Geld); viele + countable noun (viele Kulis); vieles when standing alone as a pronoun with no following noun.
• wo/woher/wohin only apply to places, and the choice depends on movement, not tense: wo = stationary (SDMA: stationary→Dativ logic), wohin = movement toward (accusative-like), woher = origin/place of exit. The same relative clause can often be phrased either with a preposition + relative pronoun (in dem, in das, von dem) or with wo/wohin/woher — both are correct, it's a style choice.
• da in a sentence is not always a relative pronoun — in the Berlin passage it was used as a causal connector ("since/because"), so context (and the verb-final word order, which both share) must be used to tell them apart.
• Homework: workbook exercises on relative clauses with was and wo (continuing from the page referenced at the start of class, ~p.130–131).