You probably are in love with the German relative clauses by now 😉 If not, let me show you one more beautiful angle of this concept: the relative pronouns with prepositions. Let's approach it as always. In order to create a relative clause we need two sentences that we can combine. Here are two candidates:
- Der Mann kauft ein Bier.
- Ich gehe nachher zu ihm.
Can you spot the relative here? Take a minute to find it. 59...58...57...1...0.
It's "Mann" and "ihm" that are the same here. So the relative clause goes right after "Mann"
- Der Mann, [2. ich gehe nachher zu ihm,] kauft ein Bier.
Next, let's push the verb to the end as relative clauses are pusher sentences:
- Der Mann, ich nachher zu ihm gehe, kauft ein Bier.
The relative "ihm" needs to be close to its partner "Mann" but it's preceded by the preposition "zu"here which sticks to the "ihm" and follows it to the beginning of the relative clause:
- Der Mann, zu ihm ich nachher gehe, kauft ein Bier.
And we are almost there. You know by now that relative pronouns (the pusher here) look pretty much like the definite articles. "ihm" doesn't look like a definite article (dem, der, den) so it needs to be replaced by the proper relative pronoun. In Dativ you have three choiced for this: dem, der and den.en. "ih.m" ends in an "m" which clearly gives away the pronoun we need: "de.m".
- Der Mann, zu dem ich nachher gehe, kauft ein Bier.
The man, to whom I'll be going later, buys a beer.
And fertig ist der Relativsatz.
Let me give you two more examples:
- Die Frau kauft ein Bier.
- Ich denke an sie.
Try to combine the two for yourself quickly before reading on...
- Die Frau, an die ich denke, kauft ein Bier.
The woman, of-whom I'm thinking, buys a beer.
Aaand one example with the Dativ Plural:
- Die Nachbarn kaufen mir ein Bier.
- Ich gefalle Ihnen.
Try to combine the two for yourself quickly before reading on...
- Die Nachbarn, denen ich gefalle, kaufen mir ein Bier.
The neighbors, to-whom I cause-pleasure, buy me a beer.
This topic is covered in: B1-L06