Imagine you want to describe something more precisely.
You might say:
“The colleague who helped me.”
or
“The restaurant that we visited yesterday.”
That little word connecting the two parts of the sentence is called a relative pronoun.
In this episode, we’ll look at what relative pronouns are and how to use them correctly in Luxembourgish
What are relative pronouns?
Are you still familiar with relative pronouns in English? In English, relative pronouns are the words who, which, that, whom and where. These types of pronouns serve several purposes:
- to point out clearly the person or thing being referred to
Example: The girl who passed by was my best friend in school.
- to supply more information about the person or thing being talked about
Example: The book that he is reading is very boring.
To talk about it in grammar-y technical terms, relative pronouns are used:
👉 To connect the dependent clause or relative clause to the main clause:
In the sentence The book that he is reading is boring the relative clause is, “that he is reading,” and the main sentence is: The book is very boring. The meaning of a relative clause is to modify the item in the main sentence to which the entire relative clause refers – in this case, “book.”
Luxembourgish relative pronouns
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neutral |
Plural |
|
|
Nom/Acc. |
deen |
déi |
dat |
déi |
|
Dative |
deem |
där |
deem |
deenen |
You should learn that
-
- The relative pronoun agrees in both gender (masc, fem, neut, plu) and number with the word it refers to. Therefore, if the noun in the main sentence is masculine and singular then the relative pronoun is masculine and singular, etc.
- The case (nom/acc/dat) of the relative pronoun agrees with the role it plays within the relative clause, not by the role of the word in the main sentence to which it refers.
- The verb(s) come(s) to the end of the relative clause
Learn more about the word order in subordinate clauses in this lesson on my blog.
Examples in the nominative case
- Den Dokter schafft op der Intensivstatioun. Hien ass ganz jonk –
☞ Den Dokter, deen op der Intensivstatioun schafft, ass ganz jonk.
– The doctor, who is working at the intensive care unit, is very young.
main clause (MC): noun = den Dokter (masc. sing.)
- Dat ass d’Infirmière. Hatt huet haut Nuechtdéngscht.
☞ Dat ass d’Infirmière, déi haut Nuechtdéngscht huet.
– This is the nurse, who is on night duty.
MC: noun = d’Infirmière (fem sing.)
- D’ Meedchen ass gëschter operéiert ginn. Hatt huet 8 Joer.
☞ D’Meedchen, dat gëschter operéiert ginn ass, huet 8 Joer.
– The girl who had surgery yesterday is 8 years old.
MC: noun = d’Meedchen (neutr. sing.)
Examples in the accusative case
- D’Infirmière ass sympathesch. Ech hu si gëschter fir d’éischt gesinn.
☞ D’Infirmière, déi ech gëschter fir d’éischt gesinn hunn, ass sympathesch.
- D’Fotoen sinn immens flott. Ech hunn d’Fotoen (se) zu Paräis gemaach.
☞ D’Fotoen, déi ech zu Paräis gemaach hunn, sinn immens flott.
MC: niun = d’Fotoen (plural)
Examples in the dative case
- Ech hunn eng Frëndin. Ech hu menger Frëndin e Buch geschenkt.
☞ Ech hunn eng Frëndin, där ech e Buch geschenkt hunn.
MC: noun = eng Frëndin (fem. sing.)
- Dat ass de Proff. Hatt huet him e Buch geschenkt.
☞ Dat ass de Proff, deem hatt e Buch geschenkt huet.
MC: noun = de Proff (masc. sing)
📌My learning tip📌
In order to be able to use the relative pronouns with ease in conversations you need to practice a lot, by doing many exercises and also by reading articles (in the news) and underlining the relative pronouns but most importantly by using it in conversations.
At Luxembourgish with Anne, you can explore everything we talked about today. To build confidence speaking, check out my B1 Bootcamp — a small, friendly group of up to four motivated learners. Practise speaking in discussions, learn practical phrases, and really boost your confidence.
Let’s practice:
Read the following text and find out the relative pronouns and determine in which case it is:
Ech si bal 30 Joer al a war scho laang onzefridden op menger Aarbecht: eng kleng Firma, e schlechte Salaire an e klenge Büro, an deem et am Wanter äiskal war. Also sinn ech op eng Aarbechtsagence gaang a krut do 2 Offeren, déi ganz interessant waren. Ech hunn de Firmen direkt meng Kandidatur geschéckt. Eng Firma huet ofgesot, bei där anerer schaffen ech elo zënter enger Woch. Ech hu genau den Job fonnt, deen ech ëmmer gesicht hunn.
Solutions:
deem (Büro = masc – dative (because we have the prep “an”))
déi (Offeren = plur)
där (Offer = fem – dative because we have the prep “bei”))
deen (Job = masc)
