KS3 · German · Year 9
People and things: relative clauses to define who, which, that
Family experiences: relative clauses
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IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can understand relative clauses that identify and add information about people and things.
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People and things: relative clauses to define who, which, that: slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can understand relative clauses that identify and add information about people and things.
Key learning points
- Relative clauses add information about the noun in the main clause, without starting another sentence.
- English uses relative pronouns ‘who’, ‘that’, ‘which’, while German uses the definite article that matches the noun.
- In German the relative pronoun kicks the verb to the end of the relative clause; this is called word order three (WO3).
- Use indefinite pronouns 'jemand' ('someone') or 'niemand' ('no one') instead of a noun when the exact person is unknown.
- When using 'jemand' or 'niemand' in subject relative clauses, use the relative pronoun 'der' as for masculine nouns.
Words to know
- relative clause
- adds information about the noun in the main clause
- relative pronoun
- pronoun that introduces a relative clause, e.g., ‘who’, ‘that’, ‘which’ - in German words 'der', 'die', 'das' are used
- word order three (WO3)
- the verb is sent to the end of the sentence or clause
Common mistakes
The word for 'who' in German is 'wer'.
We use 'wer' to ask or report a question: 'Wer ist das?', 'Ich weiß nicht, wer das ist.' But in sentences like 'that is someone, who ...' we use a relative pronoun - 'der', 'die', 'das' - which matches the gender of noun it refers to.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Relative clauses are a useful structure for all sorts of definition games. Pupils can be encouraged to create clues for others to guess, e.g., 'das ist jemand, der ...' or 'das ist etwas, das ...', helping them practise both vocabulary and grammar in context.