What der, die, das cannot do
A relative pronoun takes its gender from a noun and its case from its job in the clause. That covers most relative clauses. Three situations fall outside the pattern, and in each of them German uses a word that does not look like the article.
dessen and deren: whose
English has one word, whose, for men, women, things and plurals. German uses the Genitiv of the relative pronoun: dessen for a masculine or neuter owner, deren for a feminine owner and for all plurals.
Two sentences, one owner
Two things happen. The form comes from the owner outside the comma: eine Frau is feminine, so deren. And the noun after it has no article, because dessen and deren already do that job: not deren der Sohn, but deren Sohn. That noun still takes the case of its own role in the clause. In the Cello sentence Sohn is the subject, in die Kollegin, deren Vortrag du gehört hast, Vortrag is an object. Deren stays the same.
dessen and deren across the genders
Der Nachbar, dessen Hund immer bellt, ist ausgezogen.
The neighbour whose dog is always barking has moved out.
der Nachbar → dessen
Die Kollegin, deren Vortrag du gehört hast, kommt aus Wien.
The colleague whose talk you heard is from Vienna.
die Kollegin → deren
Ich suche ein Buch, dessen Titel ich vergessen habe.
I'm looking for a book whose title I've forgotten.
das Buch → dessen, although der Titel is masculine
Das sind die Leute, deren Wohnung wir gemietet haben.
Those are the people whose flat we rented.
plural → deren
was: when there is no noun to point at
der, die and das need a noun with a gender. When the clause refers to alles, nichts or etwas, to a superlative used as a noun, or to a whole sentence, there is no such noun and German uses was. English uses that or which and gives no signal.
What takes was
| Reference to | Example |
|---|---|
| an indefinite word | Das ist alles, was ich dazu sagen kann. |
| a neuter superlative or adjective used as a noun | Das war das Beste, was du tun konntest. |
| the entire statement before the comma | Er kam zu spät, was niemanden überraschte. |
was in use
Es gibt nichts, was mich daran stört.
There's nothing about it that bothers me.
Das ist das Einzige, worauf ich mich heute freue.
That's the only thing I'm looking forward to today.
a preposition fuses with wo-: worauf
Sie hat den Job bekommen, was mich sehr freut.
She got the job, which makes me very happy.
Er hat sich entschuldigt, womit niemand gerechnet hatte.
He apologised, which nobody had expected.
rechnen mit, referring to the whole clause
Nimm mit, was du brauchst.
Take whatever you need.
was can also begin a clause that has no antecedent at all
In none of these cases does das work: Alles, das ich weiß becomes Alles, was ich weiß. English everything that I know invites the mistake, because that looks so much like das.
wohin and woher: places with direction
For a place, wo stands for position, wohin for movement towards and woher for origin. Each replaces a preposition plus pronoun (in dem, in das, aus dem), and both versions are correct.
Position, direction, origin
Das ist die Stadt, wo meine Großeltern gelebt haben.
That's the town where my grandparents lived.
Der Ort, wohin wir fahren, ist winzig.
The place we're driving to is tiny.
= der Ort, in den wir fahren
Das Land, woher sie kommt, kenne ich kaum.
The country she comes from I hardly know.
= das Land, aus dem sie kommt
