and welcome to the third part of our mini series on relative clauses in German. And today, it’s time to get active and practice what we’ve learned in the big, exhausting
Relative Clauses Work Out
If you haven’t read the articles, or you want to re-check them, you can find them here:
And just so you know… if you’re looking for a normal exercise where you just fill in a few gaps in short sentences, then you’ve come to the wrong place. This quiz is HARD as fur. I mean rock. Or actually like a rock with fur on it. It’s soft on the surface but under it is the cold hard reality of … German.
Now you might be asking:
“Emanuel? Why do we have to do a HARD exercise?”
Which is a good question, so let me explain real quick…
The thing is… the rules themselves are actually not difficult at all. What makes using them challenging, especially in spoken German is that we have to know the gender AND determine which case to use.
And that’s what lots of exercises for relative clauses end up training – finding the gender, getting the case right.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but if we’re honest, filling a few dozen gaps with a relative pronoun won’t really improve our “relative pronoun game”. The fact of the matter is… you just need a certain amount of fluency and comfort with gender and cases and that takes time.
So instead of just doing an exercise of gender and case, I wanted to do something a little more specific for relative clauses and explore the fringes a bit. Yes, we will do easy straightforward sentences. But we’ll also do a lot of tricky examples that might throw you off even if you’re generally okay with the relative stuff.
The goal of this exercise is not that you can use relative clauses perfectly after it. That’s impossible, because of the gender-case stuff. The goal is that you really understand how relative clauses work in German and that you’ve seen and understood how various things are expressed and constructed in German.
Cool. With that said let’s look at what we’ll do today.
Overview
I have made two types of exercise. The first one is Combining Sentences. Here’s how it works. I’ll give you two sentences in German….
Thomas wird rot. Maria hat Thomas geküsst.
The task is to plug the second sentence into the first one by using a relative clause. For that, you first need to identify which element is part of both sentences. In this case, it is Thomas. So we’ll do a relative sentence that refers to Thomas. Thomas is quite masculine, and he is the direct object in the second sentence…. so relative pronoun we need is den. Then, we have to do the word order shuffle and then stick the whole thing into the slot for relative clauses – right after what it is referring to.
Thomas, den Maria geküsst hat, wird rot.
Thomas whom Maria kissed is getting red/blushes.
Note how the entity we replace with the pronoun (in this case Thomas)is NOT right in the beginning of the second sentence. That’ll be the case several times and it might throw you off. Cool. The second part of the exercise is good old Translation
I’ll give you a sentence in English and you’ll have to translate it to German. That’s quite a challenge actually, but if you’re not ready for that yet, I have good news.
I’ve actually made a new setup for my workouts and one of the new features is that you can show a hint. Just click on the little “?” . For the first type of exercise, you’ll get the English translation of the sentences.
Thomas wird rot. Maria hat Thomas geküsst. (question)
Thomas gets red/blushes. Maria kissed Thomas.(hint)
And for the second type of exercise, the hint will give you the German version, with the classic gap for the relative pronoun. So if you just want to do that, no problem :).
The cloth I cleaned my sink with was actually Maria’s Gucci-Top.
Der Lappen, mit ___ ich die Spüle sauber gemacht habe, war eigentlich Maria’s Gucci-Top. (hint)
As usual, the solution is in the audio AND you can show it by clicking the green button. And last but not least, I have added a text field, so you can enter your version before checking the solution. Note that the text field DOESN’T get checked. It’s just so you can directly compare your answer and the solution.
Cool. Now I think we’re all set, so I’d say… let’s go…. Here’s an overview over the relative pronouns, in case you need to peek.
Oh, and even if you’re crying with frustration after, don’t forget to let me know in the comments how you did and if you have questions :).
***The Exercise***
1.
Die Schokolade ist abgelaufen. Mein Chef hat mir die Schokolade geschenkt.
The chocolate has expired. My boss gave me the chocolate as a present.
Die Schokolade, die mir mein Chef geschenkt hat, ist abgelaufen.
2.
Der Schal ist aus Wolle. Maria trägt den Schal heute.
The scarf is made from wool. Maria is wearing the scarf today.
Der Schal, den Maria heute trägt, ist aus Wolle.
3.
Thomas riecht nach Schweiß. Thomas hat seit drei Tagen nicht geduscht.
Thomas is smelling of sweat. Thomas hasn’t showered in three days.
Thomas, der seit drei Tagen nicht geduscht hat, riecht nach Schweiß.
4.
Thomas kauft Deo. Maria hat Thomas gesagt, dass er stinkt.
Thomas is buying deodorant. Maria told Thomas, that he stinks.
Thomas, dem Maria gesagt hat, dass er stinkt, kauft ein Deo.
5.
Maria geht in die Sauna. Maria hatte einen stressigen Arbeitstag.
Maria is going to the sauna. Maria has had an exhausting work day.
Maria, die einen stressigen Arbeitstag hatte, geht in die Sauna.
6.
Ich bin von dem Restaurant enttäuscht. Alle sagen von dem Restaurant, dass es super ist.
I am disappointed in the restaurant. All people say about the restaurant that it’s great.
Ich bin von dem Restaurant enttäuscht, von dem alle sagen, dass es super ist.
7.
Die Bar ist zu. Du hast mir von der Bar erzählt.
The bar is closed. You told me about the bar.
Die Bar, von der du mir erzählt hast, ist zu.
8.
Maria räumt die Wohnung auf. Marias Eltern kommen am Wochenende zu Besuch.
Maria is tiding up her flat. Maria’s parents will come for a visit.
Maria, deren Eltern am Wochenende zu Besuch kommen, räumt die Wohnung auf.
9.
Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir nicht. Ich mag normalerweise Mozarts Musik.
I don’t like the new song of Mozart. I normally like Mozart’s music.
Der neue Song von Mozart, dessen Musik ich normalerweise mag, gefällt mir nicht.
10.
Maria hat mir erzählt, dass der Typ ihr ein Kleid geschenkt hat. Maria hatte neulich ein Date mit dem Typ.Das Kleid passt perfekt. Ich habe Maria gestern in der Bahn getroffen.
Maria told me that the guy gave her a dress as a present. Maria had a date with the guy recently. The dress fits perfectly.
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen habe, hat mir erzählt, dass der Typ, mit dem sie neulich ein Date hatte, ihr ein Kleid geschenkt hat, das perfekt passt.
*** Translation ***
Gender colors: masculine – feminine – neuter
11.
The movieMaria recommended was awesome.
Der Film, _____ Maria empfohlen hat, war großartig.
Der Film, den Maria empfohlen hat, war großartig.
12.
The movie Aquaman, that Maria also had recommended, was abysmal.
Der Film Aquaman, ____ Maria auch empfohlen hatte, war schrecklich.
Der Film Aquaman, den Maria auch empfohlen hatte, war schrecklich.
13.
The catI rescued from the tree yesterday, is in reality a fairy.
Die Katze, ____ ich gestern vom Baum gerettet habe, ist in Wirklichkeit eine Fee.
Die Katze, die ich gestern vom Baum gerettet habe, ist in Wirklichkeit eine Fee.
14.
Thanks to her, I now have the hipster beard I always wanted.
Dank ihr habe ich jetzt den Hipsterbart, ___ ich mir wollte.
Dank ihr habe ich jetzt den Hipsterbart, den ich mir wollte.
15.
Thomas often answers questions nobody asked.
Thomas beantwortet oft Fragen, ____ niemand gestellt hat.
Thomas beantwortet oft Fragen, die niemand gestellt hat.
16.
Is that the baryou’re always telling me about? (erzählen von)
Ist das die Bar, ____ du mir immer erzählst?
Ist das die Bar, von der du mir immer erzählst?
17.
Maria is a woman you can eat pizza with. (example sponsored by Duolingo, thank you Duo)
Maria ist eine Frau,____ man Pizza essen kann.
Maria ist eine Frau, mit der man Pizza essen kann.
18.
That example was an example for an example that doesn’t make sense.
Das beispiel war ein Beispiel für ein Beispiel, ____ keinen Sinn macht.
Das Beispiel war ein Beispiel für ein Beispiel, das keinen Sinn macht.
19.
Is that the guy you met on Tinder? The one , who looks similar to the British prime minister?
Ist das der Typ, ____ du auf Tinder kennengelernt hast? Der, ____ der britischen Premierministerin ähnlich sieht?
Ist das der Typ, den du auf Tinder kennengelernt hast? Der, der der britischen Premierministerin ähnlich sieht?
20.
Ant Man, on whom depends the fate of the universe, prepares with oil for the show down.
Ant Man, von ____ das Schicksal des Universums abhängt, bereitet sich mit Öl auf den Show Down vor.
Ant Man, von dem das Schicksal des Universums abhängt, bereitet sich mit Öl auf den Show Down vor.
21.
German is a language that can give someone who is trying to learn it a headache.
Deutsch ist eine Sprache, ____ jemandem, ____ versucht, sie zu lernen, Kopfschmerzen machen kann.
Deutsch ist eine Sprache, die jemandem, der versucht, sie zu lernen, Kopfschmerzen machen kann.
22.
Yesterday, I met with the woman whose phone I had found.
Gestern habe ich mich mit der Frau getroffen, ____ Telefon ich gefunden hatte.
Gestern habe ich mich mit der Frau getroffen, deren Telefon ich gefunden hatte.
23.
I know an influencerwho has influenza every winter.
Ich kenne einen Influencer, ____ jeden Winter Influenza hat.
Ich kenne einen Influencer, der jeden Winter Influenza hat.
24.
Emanuel is very proud of the pun he just made. (das Wortspiel)
Emanuel ist auf das Wortspiel, ____ er gerade gemacht hat, sehr stolz.
Emanuel ist auf das Wortspiel, das er gerade gemacht hat, sehr stolz.
25.
That was the best espressoI ever had.
Das war der beste Espresso, ____ ich jemals hatte.
Das war der beste Espresso, den ich jemals hatte.
26.
That’s an espresso I will tell my grandkids about.
Das ist ein Espresso, _____ ich meinen Enkeln erzählen werde.
Das ist ein Espresso, von dem ich meinen Enkeln erzählen werde.
27.
This espresso, which was the best coffee I ever had, is part of many exercise sentences.
Dieser Espresso, ____ der beste Espresso war, ____ ich jemals hatte, ist jetzt Teil vieler Übungssätze.
Dieser Espresso, der der beste Espresso war, den ich jemals hatte, ist jetzt Teil vieler Übungssätze.
28.
Today, I lost my new phone, which I had bought only a week ago.
Ich habe heute mein neues Handy, ____ ich mir erst vor einer Woche gekauft hatte, verloren.
Ich habe heute mein neues Handy, das ich mir erst vor einer Woche gekauft hatte, verloren.
29.
Today, I lost the phone I had bought just a week ago.
Ich habe heute das Handy verloren, ____ ich mir erst vor einer Woche gekauft hatte.
Ich habe heute das Handy verloren, das ich mir erst vor einer Woche gekauft hatte.
30.
The shortest example ever made.
Das kürzeste Beispiel, ____ jemals gemacht wurde.
Das kürzeste Beispiel, das jemals gemacht wurde.
31.
That guy I told you about who I met in India is coming to visit.
Der Typ, ____ ich dir erzählt habe, ____ ich in Indien getroffen habe, kommt zu Besuch.
Der Typ von dem ich dir erzählt habe, den ich in Indien getroffen habe, kommt zu Besuch.
***
And, how’d you do? How many did you get correct? And how did you like the exercise? Did you learn something? And which type did you like better? Let me know all your feedback and also all your questions in the comments!! I am super curious to hear from you.
If you failed today, just do it again tomorrow. The goal is that you learn something, not that you ace it :). I hope you had a little bit of fun, have a great week and bis nächstes Mal.
Vielen Dank, Emanuel! I found this exercise very helpful. Questions 1-10 I could handle (taking a lot of time on 10), which really helped my confidence and my sense of feel for how this works when thinking and speaking. The later questions restored my humility :). It has been very useful in helping me identify elements of grammar and vocabulary on which I need to work. I’d love to work similar exercises for other subjects!
Question re #31: “Der Typ, von dem ich dir erzählt habe, den ich in Indien getroffen habe, kommt zu Besuch.” Could that also finish “kommt besuchen” and be grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing? I’m thinking this is kommen used as a verb of motion so would take the infinitive without zu.
Splendid! The case work will be good. Ich freue mich auf das Üben. Ich freue mich zu üben. i’m comfortable with the cases thinking them through but need to work them a lot to get to the point that the correct construction is instinctive. i’ll be back with more questions on these relative pronouns too. : )
Veen
10 months ago
Wir sind auch sehr stolz auf das Wortspiel, das Emanuel gerade gemacht hat :)
Also I’ve been intuitively deciding whether to split or not, and this is where I differed from you. Would you say it’s okay not to split here?
Help me out… what are you referring to with the question? The sentence as you wrote it is fine. What do you mean by unsplit.
Veen
10 months ago
Deutsch ist eine Sprache, die jemandem, der versucht, sie zu lernen, Kopfschmerzen machen kann, aber trotzdem, die Freude daran macht es wieder wett :)
Ich habe dafür entschiedet, dieser Satz oben für meinen Aufsatzsanfang zu benutzen. Kannst du überprüfen, ob es in Ordnung ist?
1) … aber trotzdem – die Freude daran macht es wett.
oder
2) … aber die Freude daran macht es wett.
Das Problem mit dem “trotzdem” ist die Wortstellung. Es funktioniert in diesem Kontext und diesem “arrangement” nur, wenn du danach eine Zäsur machts.
Und das “wieder” würde ich persönlich rausnehmen, aber das kann Geschmackssache sein.
Ansonsten super Satz… sehr “crafty” :)
Sylvie
1 year ago
Emanuel that exercise was only for Kamikaze or Saolin…I got sick until I finish it all Help…! I’m starting to be persuaded that I will learn german with you..you convience me!! I know it’s late, 2am for us and 1am for you and I am sorry for texting so late, but I just have now finished your “NASA” entry exercise. Emanuel, I haven’t at all answered the question 22, because I understand nothing I’m sorry!! And I burst out laughing with question 23 you have really very good humor!!! It’s very rare, that means you are intelligent! I’m impressed!! With the pronouns I think, I feel fine, I only need a lot of practise..I have the best teacher of the whole world, I have nothing to be afraid about and it seems that you are also a very good person, that you care about the others (as far as I know you from our friend Cari’s videos). Even if I very rarely trust someone, I can say, you are just perfect and wish you a perfect day as well
Wow, I hope the exercise didn’t discourage you :). If there’s anything you’re unsure about, please ask and I’ll try to clear it up. And try the workout again in a week and see how much you recall. Have a terrific day!!
No Emanuel, the exercise was just what it should be, I didn’t expect something less from you. I will do what you are sayng, I will repeat it again next week and tell you in anyway… wish you a very nice day too… :-))
Yisi
2 years ago
I have a question about:
9.Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir nicht. Ich mag normalerweise Mozarts Musik.
I don’t like the new song of Mozart. I usually like Mozart’s music.
I don’t like the new song of Mozart, whose music I usually like.
Der neue Song von Mozart, dessen Musik ich normalerweise mag, gefällt mir nicht.
If I wanted to say I, who usually like Mozart’s music, don’t like his new song.
Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir, der normalerweise sein Musik mag, nicht.
Nice thinking!! I think your version should be correct officially, but I am not sure and idiomatically, I do feel some sort of weird urge to do it this way:
– Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir, der ich normalerweise….
You see, referring to oneself with a relative pronoun is not very common and the fact that I have the Dative role in the main sentence makes it even less intuitive. These phrasings with “der ich” or “die ich” are fairly common in older books, and speeches, but it’s kind of hard to google them, because you have no way to tell Google that the “der/die” also refers to the “ich”
Anyway, it’s definitely not a phrasing someone would naturally use in daily life, but well done! Hope that helps :)
I am sure there are a lot of ways to express an idea.
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen hat, erzählt mir, dass das Kleid ihr der Typ, mit dem sie neulich ein Date hatte, geschenkt hat, passt perfekt.
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen hat, erzählt mir, dass der Typ mit dem sie ein Date hatte, hat ihr ein Kleid geschenkt, das passt ihr perfekt.
The second one above, when translated ,does not sound 100% correct in English. However the German version of it (the second one) , sounds very idiomatic to me compared to the first one.
Which one sounds more idiomatic to German ears? And, are there mistakes in the above sentences?
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen habe, erzählt mir, dass das Kleid, DAS ihr der Typ, mit dem sie neulich ein Date hatte, geschenkt hat, perfekt passt.
Similar mistakes in the second one.
The second one has the fact that he gave her a dress as the main focus, while the first one focuses on the fact that it fits perfectly. So both are okay, depends on what you want to stress. But they’re both defo on the upper end of the “complexity” scale for daily speech :)
Charlespatton
2 years ago
Great exercise, as a native Englisch speaker, I often omit the personal pronoun without thinking about it. This exercise helps me understand how a native German speaker would construct the sentence. Übung macht den Meister!
It’ll definitely take a while to get used to it. These kinds of phrasings are really automatic so don’t get frustrated if you make mistakes while speaking :).
#22 confused me. Gestern habe ich mich mit der Frau getroffen, deren Telefon ich gefunden hatte. I can’t figure out why this is reflexive. When I asked my spouse, who is a native German speaker, he was puzzled also. He said he would never include mich. I searched some sites and everyone seems to think they are equivalent sentences. Can you shed some light on this?
Thanks for including the example in the comment :)!!! That actually saves me a lot of clicking :D.
The reflexive is there because that’s just how the verb works.
– sich treffen mit
You can also say “treffen” and have roughly the same meaning. I’m REALLY confused that a native speaker find the reflexive there to be that strange. For more info, check out my article on “treffen”. There’s a part about “treffen” vs “sich treffen mit” in there.
Thanks, I will check it out. What I found odd in my googling (I guess that’s a word now) many Germans said they were equivalent (with and without mich) sentences. Is that just a recent language change of laziness or a dialect choice?
Yes, my spouse definitely said he would never use mich. His parents came from the far far east in what is now Poland. They do use a lot of idiomatic speech that was native to their area.
I think you need to copy paste it to make it work :). I was searching for the phrase “trifft sich mit”. I bet there are more hits for the past tense, but I can’t search for that on n-gram because I don’t think I can have a wildcard empty slot there.
Anyway, I think it’s save to consider it standard German.
Amelad
2 years ago
Hey, great exercise! Loved it even though it was demanding, especially translating from English to German.
I’m wondering about one thing unrelated to the relative clauses, on 14) when you write ‘den ich mir wollte’, is it common to use sich wollen and if possible to explain when one should use it?
Wow, actually that’s a mitake. I think I first had “den ich mir immer gewünscht hab” but then changed it to “wollte” without editing the middle. I can’t believe that no one brought that up till now :)
Okay good to know, Thanks and I hope you feel better soon :)
tmurrin1979
2 years ago
Got myself a little bit into the deep end of my comfort zone on this one, but the articles (so many haha) and humor are fantastic and it’s hard to stop reading! Definitely blew it on the first go, but did get some of the lesson’s parts right here and there. Will give it another read and try again soon :)
Seriously, I am very glad I found your site. I finished the Duolingo course and felt ok on a basic level, but felt a lot of the “why” seemed to be missing. Then I dug into some beginner course books (tables and all) and felt like I was in over my head. With your course everything just makes much more sense. Especially the adjectives endings, I was blown away!
One thing I did notice when I started learning German was that when a concept was explained it actually recalled a lot of childhood lessons learning English – cases, tenses, diagramming sentences, oh my… It’s amazing how that stuff just “happens” unconsciously after you become fluent, especially in your native language, and I hope someday it will “click” like that with German for me :) You really tie the two together nicely!
Thanks a lot for the great feedback. And actually, I wouldn’t sweat it about the relative pronouns. In fact, my recommendation would be to walk away from it for a week or so, or even wait till it comes back up by itself. You’ve got a rough idea what’s to know, how complicated it is roughly and how well you did, and when you get back to it the second time, it’ll be much easier. I always do that with grammar… I read up on an issue to get an overview and as soon as I feel like i actually have to put work in, I walk away and let it “ripen” :)
I’ve been doing Duolingo for the past year now, and on their new system, I have 8 more skills to finish the course. Halfway though the course, they stop giving any grammar notes and tips at all, expecting a learner to just pick it up. So I tried immersing myself in more resources, hoping to get the same type of click that kids get. And it was pretty cool to be able to understand books and the news.
But then I tried to write and speak… and oh boy…was it a disaster. Turns out that while one can quite easily gloss over the articles, word order, word endings, tenses, etc. when consuming dialogue. But producing dialogue requires more know-how. Then I stumbled on this site’s grammar course and was stunned/frustrated/sad that I didn’t even know some stuff explained in The Essentials part of the Grammar Course. So I started from the beginning and can FINALLY produce my own correct sentences!!!
What’s extra nice, that Duolingo completely lacks, is that I’m finding the exercises here combine different tenses while building on each other, with some very nice, complex sentences that really makes you think. In Duolingo, they keep stuff so compartmentalized, never mixing tenses. They only ever mix vocab that’s super obviously different from each other: to this day, I’m still doing word matching with a pool from Junge, Ente, stark, vierzig, lesen, perfekt -_-
Thanks a lot for the great feedback :)! I actually don’t have nowhere near as many exercises as I would like to have on here, but I’m happy to hear that those that I do have get the job done.
And yes, writing idiomatic German is MUCH harder than speaking. One trap people often fall into is that they think they have to make complicated sentences when writing, so my tip here is… keep it simple and boring. Complicated phrasings will happen automatically when you need to express complicated things. But for simple things, use the most basic phrasings German has :)
Turtles
3 years ago
I finished 11-20, I did generally better except I did not have the vocabulary. I also attempted a large own sentence
Albert, den ich neben der Post traf, warnte mich, dass Adam, der eines Tages meine Träume zebrechen würde, ein Dämon ist, den ich ablehnte, und sagte, dass Adam, der mich zum Abendessen einlud, perfekt ist
Translation
Albert, whom I met next to the post office, warned me that Adam, who would one day break my dreams, is a demon which I rejected and said that Adam, who invited me to dinner, is perfect
This “den” is referring to “Adam” but you need “was” here. A free relative, which I haven’t talked about yet.
Turtles
3 years ago
I will work on 11-30 and give another feed back but as for 1-10 I got only 4 correct :( , I understood all solutions apart from 6 for somereason. It was a good challenge.
For 10, Specifically was too brain consuming. Sadly I failed. For some reason, I am hungry for more.
Dankeschön for the excersies
Jess
3 years ago
Hi, Emanuel! I dont know why so many people are picky on your English typos and minor mistakes. Bilingualism is a blessing we cant take for granted. English is not my native language either. But thanks to people like you, who use English to teach a language, I can use english to learn German. And minor typos and little mistakes are crossed off my list of interests. I want to learn German, and I just love how u dissect german to its bare roots so I can understand it. And u use an instrument, English. This is not a college assignment, that has to score 100 in grammar. all of this hard work comes from freewill, from heart. It doesnt seek perfection. With that being said, I just loved these two exercising! learning the dynamics on how to stick one sentence into another is very helpful ( except for number 10, that im 100% sure you put there just for advance guys or just to prove that Germans love making looooong sentences. ) The second exercise is awesome too. The requirement is not exactly perfect translation, but learning how to convert meaning from one language do another. And that’s the beauty of true bilingualism: when u just know how to say the same thing in 2 languages, without having to really translate one into another. I hope I can get to this level in German too. Glad to be part of this group here.
Thanks for all the ncie feedback :). In defense of the people correcting me, though, I never got a feeling that someone is picky. They’re genuinely trying to help. And it actually does help. I find typos in a text quite irritating and the fewer the better :). But glad you got my back :D Liebe Grüße!!
Cyndey B
3 years ago
Really like the format with the color coded genders and the reveal of the correct sentence. Does take some time to think them through but what great language exercise doesn’t ! ;-) Nice job !
Also can you please explain the difference between “antworten” and “beantworten”? I know it’s similar to “benutzen” and “nutzen” but I never understand the difference.
I translated something like this: Thomas antwortet oft Fragen, die niemand gefragt hat.
but the correct translation is: Thomas beantwortet oft Fragen, die niemand gestellt hat.
Is it not necessary to have, “es passt ihr perfekt.”?
The complete sentence will look like: Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen habe, hat mir erzählt, dass der Typ, mit dem sie nuelich ein Date hatte, ihr ein Kleid geschenkt hat, es passt ihr perfekt.
Great question, but no, you don’t have to have that here. You can use this self reference but it is optional, if context makes it clear to whom the piece of clothing is a fit.
Small note:
You use “es” in the relative clause. You definitely need to use “das”. “es” is not a relative pronoun.,
Bran
3 years ago
Danke für die Übung, die mir gleichermaßen Glück und Frustration bereitet hat.
Einige Fragen:
Dieser Espresso, der der beste Espresso war, den ich jemals hatte, ist jetzt Teil vieler Übungssätze. – Dieser Espresso, der der beste Espresso, den ich jemals hatte, war?… geht das?
Ist es immer nötig Kommas einzusetzen? Wie hier: Thomas antwortet oft Fragen die niemand gestellt hat.
Kopfschmerzen machen? Ich dachte dass geben üblicher ist.
—
Obwohl deine Erklärungen hilfreiche Pfade bieten, um die ganze Grammatik zu verstehen, finde ich dass es zu kompliziert ist immer daran zu denken wenn ich so einen Satz bauen möchte. Glücklicherweise sind meine Freunde vernünftige Leute die nie so “eingebildet” reden würden. Diese Art Übungen sind sehr hilfreich um die Regeln zu verinnerlichen. Langsam kriege ich das deutschen Sprachgefühl, danke für deinen kontinuierlichen Beitrag dazu!
– Dieser Espresse, der der beste Espresso, den ich je hatte, war, ist jetzt…
Theoretisch geht das, aber es ist kein guter Stil. Man hat drei Verben hintereinander die NICHTS miteinander zu tun haben (hatte, war, ist) und da muss man sich als Muttersprachler extrem konzentrieren, um das auseinanderzufummeln. Hast du den zweiten Teil von meiner Erklärung zu Relativsätzen gelesen? Da rede ich ein bisschen über Balance im Satz und solche Sachen.
Zu den Kommas:
Ja, die müssen sein. Jeder Nebensatz wird durch Komma abgetrennt, vorne und hinten.
“Kopfschmerzen machen” ist idiomatisch in Deutsch. “geben” (give) ist in Englisch :)
Und ja, wie du sagst… diese ganzen Regeln kann man nicht bewusst anwenden, wenn man spricht. Dazu ist es zu viel. Dein Deutsch klingt schon extrem gut und idiomatisch … zumindest geschrieben :). Glückwunsch dazu!!!
Rômulo Gama
3 years ago
Hallo,
Danke zuerst für die Übungen!
Ich habe eine Frage dazu. Warum soll man “Ich bin von dem Restaurant enttäuscht, von dem alle sagen, dass es super ist” so schreiben anstelle “Ich bin von dem Restaurant, von dem alle sagen, dass es super ist, enttäuscht”? Gibt es zufällig eine Regel dafür oder klingt es einfach besser so?
Es gibt nicht wirklich eine Regel, leider. Es ist eine Sache von Stil. Hast du den zweiten Teil von meinem Artikel über Relativpronomen gelesen? Da rede ich über diese Sachen :)
karenzshea
3 years ago
Das war die beste Übung, die jemals gemacht wurde
This example was a bit of a brain twister for me, while trying to translate/correct/untangle at the same time;) “That example was an example for an example that doesn’t make sense.” => “That example was an example _of_ an example that doesn’t make sense.”
pluton
3 years ago
Werde ich, der gerade eben die lustigen Übungen, die vor fünf Tagen auf diesem ausgezeichneten Blog, dessen Autor, den viele Menschen lesen, ihn immer ändert und verbessert, veröffentlicht haben wurden, für Relativpronomen fertig gemacht hat, morgen, der Sonntag ist, früh aufstehen? Das ist fast Rekursion. :) Danke für die Übungen; sie waren nicht sehr schwer. Ich habe keine Relativpronomenfehler im ersten Teil und drei im zweiten gemacht, aber ich habe mich nicht beeilt.
Uff… wooooooow! Das war verrückt und für mich eine Herausforderung, ihm zu folgen :). War en bisschen wie Kant. Der schreibt so.
Es war fast alles richtig.
– “veröffentlicht wurde” (ohne haben) – “Blog, dessen Autor, den viele Menschen lesen, ihn immer … ” Das ist grammatisch korrekt, aber sehr schwer zu verstehen. Der Autor und der Blog sind männlich und man muss sich EXTREM konzentrieren um zu wissen, was sich worauf bezieht.
– “morgen, der Sonntag ist”
Das funktioniert nicht, weil “morgen” kein Nomen ist. Du kannst sagen “morgen, wenn/wo Sonntag ist,…” Darüber rede ich in Teil 3 :)
Was ist denn dein Level? C1?? Wenn die Übung nicht schwer war?
Entschuldigung, das war eine Übertreibung nach den Übungen. Danke für deine Korrekturen! Ich habe keine Ahnung, welcher mein Stand ist; vielleicht, überhaupt B1 oder B2. Relativpronomen sind logisch, also nicht so schwer. Wenn man Englisch und Russisch spricht, Deutsch ist relativ einfach, weil die meisten Grammatik ist bekannt. Ist “Level” ein deutsches Wort? Meine Wörterbücher haben das nicht.
Gute Frage :). Für mich ist Level jetzt ein deutsches Wort, denn es hat eine klar abgegrenzte Bedeutung gegenüber Niveau. Aber vielleicht ist das nur in meinem Kopf. Es ist auf jeden Fall ein Wort, dass man benutzen kann, ohne dass es wie ein krasser Anglizismus klingt (wenn man unter 50 Jahre ist :)
Hello everyone,
I love this kind of exercises. Very engaging and challenging. Super useful!
Wow, du bist echt fleißig :)!
Vielen Dank, Emanuel! I found this exercise very helpful. Questions 1-10 I could handle (taking a lot of time on 10), which really helped my confidence and my sense of feel for how this works when thinking and speaking. The later questions restored my humility :). It has been very useful in helping me identify elements of grammar and vocabulary on which I need to work. I’d love to work similar exercises for other subjects!
Question re #31: “Der Typ, von dem ich dir erzählt habe, den ich in Indien getroffen habe, kommt zu Besuch.” Could that also finish “kommt besuchen” and be grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing? I’m thinking this is kommen used as a verb of motion so would take the infinitive without zu.
You’re right, there’s no “zu” needed, but you would need a direct object.
That would work, sound super native and means the exact same :).
As for the exercise itself… I used the same format for a bunch of case exercises. Not sure if you’ve seen those.
Splendid! The case work will be good. Ich freue mich auf das Üben. Ich freue mich zu üben. i’m comfortable with the cases thinking them through but need to work them a lot to get to the point that the correct construction is instinctive. i’ll be back with more questions on these relative pronouns too. : )
Wir sind auch sehr stolz auf das Wortspiel, das Emanuel gerade gemacht hat :)
Also I’ve been intuitively deciding whether to split or not, and this is where I differed from you. Would you say it’s okay not to split here?
Help me out… what are you referring to with the question?
The sentence as you wrote it is fine. What do you mean by unsplit.
Deutsch ist eine Sprache, die jemandem, der versucht, sie zu lernen, Kopfschmerzen machen kann, aber trotzdem, die Freude daran macht es wieder wett :)
Ich habe dafür entschiedet, dieser Satz oben für meinen Aufsatzsanfang zu benutzen. Kannst du überprüfen, ob es in Ordnung ist?
Fast perfekt.
Aber entweder:
1) … aber trotzdem – die Freude daran macht es wett.
oder
2) … aber die Freude daran macht es wett.
Das Problem mit dem “trotzdem” ist die Wortstellung. Es funktioniert in diesem Kontext und diesem “arrangement” nur, wenn du danach eine Zäsur machts.
Und das “wieder” würde ich persönlich rausnehmen, aber das kann Geschmackssache sein.
Ansonsten super Satz… sehr “crafty” :)
Emanuel that exercise was only for Kamikaze or Saolin…I got sick until I finish it all Help…! I’m starting to be persuaded that I will learn german with you..you convience me!! I know it’s late, 2am for us and 1am for you and I am sorry for texting so late, but I just have now finished your “NASA” entry exercise. Emanuel, I haven’t at all answered the question 22, because I understand nothing I’m sorry!! And I burst out laughing with question 23 you have really very good humor!!! It’s very rare, that means you are intelligent! I’m impressed!! With the pronouns I think, I feel fine, I only need a lot of practise..I have the best teacher of the whole world, I have nothing to be afraid about and it seems that you are also a very good person, that you care about the others (as far as I know you from our friend Cari’s videos). Even if I very rarely trust someone, I can say, you are just perfect and wish you a perfect day as well
Wow, I hope the exercise didn’t discourage you :).
If there’s anything you’re unsure about, please ask and I’ll try to clear it up. And try the workout again in a week and see how much you recall. Have a terrific day!!
I will do what you are saying!! So you too, have a very nice day!! :-)
No Emanuel, the exercise was just what it should be, I didn’t expect something less from you. I will do what you are sayng, I will repeat it again next week and tell you in anyway… wish you a very nice day too… :-))
I have a question about:
9.Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir nicht. Ich mag normalerweise Mozarts Musik.
I don’t like the new song of Mozart, whose music I usually like.
If I wanted to say
I, who usually like Mozart’s music, don’t like his new song.
Would that work?
Nice thinking!!
I think your version should be correct officially, but I am not sure and idiomatically, I do feel some sort of weird urge to do it this way:
– Der neue Song von Mozart gefällt mir, der ich normalerweise….
You see, referring to oneself with a relative pronoun is not very common and the fact that I have the Dative role in the main sentence makes it even less intuitive.
These phrasings with “der ich” or “die ich” are fairly common in older books, and speeches, but it’s kind of hard to google them, because you have no way to tell Google that the “der/die” also refers to the “ich”
Anyway, it’s definitely not a phrasing someone would naturally use in daily life, but well done!
Hope that helps :)
Thanks!
I am sure there are a lot of ways to express an idea.
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen hat, erzählt mir, dass das Kleid ihr der Typ, mit dem sie neulich ein Date hatte, geschenkt hat, passt perfekt.
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen hat, erzählt mir, dass der Typ mit dem sie ein Date hatte, hat ihr ein Kleid geschenkt, das passt ihr perfekt.
The second one above, when translated ,does not sound 100% correct in English. However the German version of it (the second one) , sounds very idiomatic to me compared to the first one.
Which one sounds more idiomatic to German ears? And, are there mistakes in the above sentences?
Thank you:)
There are a couple of mistakes in the first one:
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen habe, erzählt mir, dass das Kleid, DAS ihr der Typ, mit dem sie neulich ein Date hatte, geschenkt hat, perfekt passt.
Similar mistakes in the second one.
The second one has the fact that he gave her a dress as the main focus, while the first one focuses on the fact that it fits perfectly.
So both are okay, depends on what you want to stress.
But they’re both defo on the upper end of the “complexity” scale for daily speech :)
Great exercise, as a native Englisch speaker, I often omit the personal pronoun without thinking about it. This exercise helps me understand how a native German speaker would construct the sentence. Übung macht den Meister!
It’ll definitely take a while to get used to it. These kinds of phrasings are really automatic so don’t get frustrated if you make mistakes while speaking :).
#22 confused me.
Gestern habe ich mich mit der Frau getroffen, deren Telefon ich gefunden hatte.
I can’t figure out why this is reflexive. When I asked my spouse, who is a native German speaker, he was puzzled also. He said he would never include mich. I searched some sites and everyone seems to think they are equivalent sentences.
Can you shed some light on this?
Thanks for including the example in the comment :)!!! That actually saves me a lot of clicking :D.
The reflexive is there because that’s just how the verb works.
– sich treffen mit
You can also say “treffen” and have roughly the same meaning.
I’m REALLY confused that a native speaker find the reflexive there to be that strange.
For more info, check out my article on “treffen”. There’s a part about “treffen” vs “sich treffen mit” in there.
https://yourdailygerman.com/treffen-meaning/
Thanks, I will check it out. What I found odd in my googling (I guess that’s a word now) many Germans said they were equivalent (with and without mich) sentences. Is that just a recent language change of laziness or a dialect choice?
Yes, my spouse definitely said he would never use mich. His parents came from the far far east in what is now Poland. They do use a lot of idiomatic speech that was native to their area.
I don’t think it’s regional or recent, to be honest.
I ran a quick search on Google ngram and it was around in books since half a century.
Here’s the link:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=trifft+sich+mit&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=20&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctrifft%20sich%20mit%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Ctrifft%20sich%20mit%3B%2Cc0
I think you need to copy paste it to make it work :). I was searching for the phrase “trifft sich mit”. I bet there are more hits for the past tense, but I can’t search for that on n-gram because I don’t think I can have a wildcard empty slot there.
Anyway, I think it’s save to consider it standard German.
Hey, great exercise! Loved it even though it was demanding, especially translating from English to German.
I’m wondering about one thing unrelated to the relative clauses, on 14) when you write ‘den ich mir wollte’, is it common to use sich wollen and if possible to explain when one should use it?
Thanks,
Amela
Wow, actually that’s a mitake. I think I first had “den ich mir immer gewünscht hab” but then changed it to “wollte” without editing the middle.
I can’t believe that no one brought that up till now :)
Okay good to know,
Thanks and I hope you feel better soon :)
Got myself a little bit into the deep end of my comfort zone on this one, but the articles (so many haha) and humor are fantastic and it’s hard to stop reading! Definitely blew it on the first go, but did get some of the lesson’s parts right here and there. Will give it another read and try again soon :)
Seriously, I am very glad I found your site. I finished the Duolingo course and felt ok on a basic level, but felt a lot of the “why” seemed to be missing. Then I dug into some beginner course books (tables and all) and felt like I was in over my head. With your course everything just makes much more sense. Especially the adjectives endings, I was blown away!
One thing I did notice when I started learning German was that when a concept was explained it actually recalled a lot of childhood lessons learning English – cases, tenses, diagramming sentences, oh my… It’s amazing how that stuff just “happens” unconsciously after you become fluent, especially in your native language, and I hope someday it will “click” like that with German for me :) You really tie the two together nicely!
Thanks a lot for the great feedback. And actually, I wouldn’t sweat it about the relative pronouns.
In fact, my recommendation would be to walk away from it for a week or so, or even wait till it comes back up by itself.
You’ve got a rough idea what’s to know, how complicated it is roughly and how well you did, and when you get back to it the second time, it’ll be much easier.
I always do that with grammar… I read up on an issue to get an overview and as soon as I feel like i actually have to put work in, I walk away and let it “ripen” :)
I’ve been doing Duolingo for the past year now, and on their new system, I have 8 more skills to finish the course. Halfway though the course, they stop giving any grammar notes and tips at all, expecting a learner to just pick it up. So I tried immersing myself in more resources, hoping to get the same type of click that kids get. And it was pretty cool to be able to understand books and the news.
But then I tried to write and speak… and oh boy…was it a disaster. Turns out that while one can quite easily gloss over the articles, word order, word endings, tenses, etc. when consuming dialogue. But producing dialogue requires more know-how. Then I stumbled on this site’s grammar course and was stunned/frustrated/sad that I didn’t even know some stuff explained in The Essentials part of the Grammar Course. So I started from the beginning and can FINALLY produce my own correct sentences!!!
What’s extra nice, that Duolingo completely lacks, is that I’m finding the exercises here combine different tenses while building on each other, with some very nice, complex sentences that really makes you think. In Duolingo, they keep stuff so compartmentalized, never mixing tenses. They only ever mix vocab that’s super obviously different from each other: to this day, I’m still doing word matching with a pool from Junge, Ente, stark, vierzig, lesen, perfekt -_-
Thanks a lot for the great feedback :)!
I actually don’t have nowhere near as many exercises as I would like to have on here, but I’m happy to hear that those that I do have get the job done.
And yes, writing idiomatic German is MUCH harder than speaking. One trap people often fall into is that they think they have to make complicated sentences when writing, so my tip here is… keep it simple and boring.
Complicated phrasings will happen automatically when you need to express complicated things. But for simple things, use the most basic phrasings German has :)
I finished 11-20, I did generally better except I did not have the vocabulary. I also attempted a large own sentence
Albert, den ich neben der Post traf, warnte mich, dass Adam, der eines Tages meine Träume zebrechen würde, ein Dämon ist, den ich ablehnte, und sagte, dass Adam, der mich zum Abendessen einlud, perfekt ist
Translation
Albert, whom I met next to the post office, warned me that Adam, who would one day break my dreams, is a demon which I rejected and said that Adam, who invited me to dinner, is perfect
Well done. There’s one big mistake in there:
– … Adam, den ich ablehnte,…
This “den” is referring to “Adam” but you need “was” here. A free relative, which I haven’t talked about yet.
I will work on 11-30 and give another feed back
but as for 1-10
I got only 4 correct :( , I understood all solutions apart from 6 for somereason. It was a good challenge.
For 10, Specifically was too brain consuming. Sadly I failed. For some reason, I am hungry for more.
Dankeschön for the excersies
Hi, Emanuel!
I dont know why so many people are picky on your English typos and minor mistakes. Bilingualism is a blessing we cant take for granted. English is not my native language either. But thanks to people like you, who use English to teach a language, I can use english to learn German. And minor typos and little mistakes are crossed off my list of interests. I want to learn German, and I just love how u dissect german to its bare roots so I can understand it. And u use an instrument, English. This is not a college assignment, that has to score 100 in grammar. all of this hard work comes from freewill, from heart. It doesnt seek perfection.
With that being said, I just loved these two exercising! learning the dynamics on how to stick one sentence into another is very helpful ( except for number 10, that im 100% sure you put there just for advance guys or just to prove that Germans love making looooong sentences. )
The second exercise is awesome too. The requirement is not exactly perfect translation, but learning how to convert meaning from one language do another. And that’s the beauty of true bilingualism: when u just know how to say the same thing in 2 languages, without having to really translate one into another. I hope I can get to this level in German too.
Glad to be part of this group here.
Thanks for all the ncie feedback :).
In defense of the people correcting me, though, I never got a feeling that someone is picky. They’re genuinely trying to help. And it actually does help. I find typos in a text quite irritating and the fewer the better :).
But glad you got my back :D Liebe Grüße!!
Really like the format with the color coded genders and the reveal of the correct sentence. Does take some time to think them through but what great language exercise doesn’t ! ;-) Nice job !
Danke dir, freut mich, dass es dir gefallen hat!
Also can you please explain the difference between “antworten” and “beantworten”?
I know it’s similar to “benutzen” and “nutzen” but I never understand the difference.
I translated something like this:
Thomas antwortet oft Fragen, die niemand gefragt hat.
but the correct translation is:
Thomas beantwortet oft Fragen, die niemand gestellt hat.
I have an article about that:
https://yourdailygerman.com/antworten-beantworten-difference/
Is it not necessary to have, “es passt ihr perfekt.”?
The complete sentence will look like:
Maria, die ich gestern in der Bahn getroffen habe, hat mir erzählt, dass der Typ, mit dem sie nuelich ein Date hatte, ihr ein Kleid geschenkt hat, es passt ihr perfekt.
Thanks,
Roy.
Great question, but no, you don’t have to have that here.
You can use this self reference but it is optional, if context makes it clear to whom the piece of clothing is a fit.
Small note:
You use “es” in the relative clause. You definitely need to use “das”. “es” is not a relative pronoun.,
Danke für die Übung, die mir gleichermaßen Glück und Frustration bereitet hat.
Einige Fragen:
Dieser Espresso, der der beste Espresso war, den ich jemals hatte, ist jetzt Teil vieler Übungssätze.
– Dieser Espresso, der der beste Espresso, den ich jemals hatte, war?… geht das?
Ist es immer nötig Kommas einzusetzen? Wie hier:
Thomas antwortet oft Fragen die niemand gestellt hat.
Kopfschmerzen machen? Ich dachte dass geben üblicher ist.
—
Obwohl deine Erklärungen hilfreiche Pfade bieten, um die ganze Grammatik zu verstehen, finde ich dass es zu kompliziert ist immer daran zu denken wenn ich so einen Satz bauen möchte. Glücklicherweise sind meine Freunde vernünftige Leute die nie so “eingebildet” reden würden. Diese Art Übungen sind sehr hilfreich um die Regeln zu verinnerlichen. Langsam kriege ich das deutschen Sprachgefühl, danke für deinen kontinuierlichen Beitrag dazu!
Gute Fragen!
Also:
– Dieser Espresse, der der beste Espresso, den ich je hatte, war, ist jetzt…
Theoretisch geht das, aber es ist kein guter Stil.
Man hat drei Verben hintereinander die NICHTS miteinander zu tun haben (hatte, war, ist) und da muss man sich als Muttersprachler extrem konzentrieren, um das auseinanderzufummeln.
Hast du den zweiten Teil von meiner Erklärung zu Relativsätzen gelesen? Da rede ich ein bisschen über Balance im Satz und solche Sachen.
Zu den Kommas:
Ja, die müssen sein. Jeder Nebensatz wird durch Komma abgetrennt, vorne und hinten.
“Kopfschmerzen machen” ist idiomatisch in Deutsch. “geben” (give) ist in Englisch :)
Und ja, wie du sagst… diese ganzen Regeln kann man nicht bewusst anwenden, wenn man spricht. Dazu ist es zu viel. Dein Deutsch klingt schon extrem gut und idiomatisch … zumindest geschrieben :). Glückwunsch dazu!!!
Hallo,
Danke zuerst für die Übungen!
Ich habe eine Frage dazu. Warum soll man “Ich bin von dem Restaurant enttäuscht, von dem alle sagen, dass es super ist” so schreiben anstelle “Ich bin von dem Restaurant, von dem alle sagen, dass es super ist, enttäuscht”? Gibt es zufällig eine Regel dafür oder klingt es einfach besser so?
Vielen Dank im Voraus,
Rômulo
Es gibt nicht wirklich eine Regel, leider. Es ist eine Sache von Stil. Hast du den zweiten Teil von meinem Artikel über Relativpronomen gelesen? Da rede ich über diese Sachen :)
Das war die beste Übung, die jemals gemacht wurde
This example was a bit of a brain twister for me, while trying to translate/correct/untangle at the same time;)
“That example was an example for an example that doesn’t make sense.” => “That example was an example _of_ an example that doesn’t make sense.”
Werde ich, der gerade eben die lustigen Übungen, die vor fünf Tagen auf diesem ausgezeichneten Blog, dessen Autor, den viele Menschen lesen, ihn immer ändert und verbessert, veröffentlicht haben wurden, für Relativpronomen fertig gemacht hat, morgen, der Sonntag ist, früh aufstehen?
Das ist fast Rekursion. :)
Danke für die Übungen; sie waren nicht sehr schwer. Ich habe keine Relativpronomenfehler im ersten Teil und drei im zweiten gemacht, aber ich habe mich nicht beeilt.
Uff… wooooooow! Das war verrückt und für mich eine Herausforderung, ihm zu folgen :). War en bisschen wie Kant. Der schreibt so.
Es war fast alles richtig.
– “veröffentlicht wurde” (ohne haben)
– “Blog, dessen Autor, den viele Menschen lesen, ihn immer … ”
Das ist grammatisch korrekt, aber sehr schwer zu verstehen. Der Autor und der Blog sind männlich und man muss sich EXTREM konzentrieren um zu wissen, was sich worauf bezieht.
– “morgen, der Sonntag ist”
Das funktioniert nicht, weil “morgen” kein Nomen ist. Du kannst sagen “morgen, wenn/wo Sonntag ist,…”
Darüber rede ich in Teil 3 :)
Was ist denn dein Level? C1?? Wenn die Übung nicht schwer war?
Entschuldigung, das war eine Übertreibung nach den Übungen. Danke für deine Korrekturen!
Ich habe keine Ahnung, welcher mein Stand ist; vielleicht, überhaupt B1 oder B2. Relativpronomen sind logisch, also nicht so schwer. Wenn man Englisch und Russisch spricht, Deutsch ist relativ einfach, weil die meisten Grammatik ist bekannt. Ist “Level” ein deutsches Wort? Meine Wörterbücher haben das nicht.
Gute Frage :). Für mich ist Level jetzt ein deutsches Wort, denn es hat eine klar abgegrenzte Bedeutung gegenüber Niveau. Aber vielleicht ist das nur in meinem Kopf.
Es ist auf jeden Fall ein Wort, dass man benutzen kann, ohne dass es wie ein krasser Anglizismus klingt (wenn man unter 50 Jahre ist :)