A relative clause is a type of dependent clause, which describes the noun that appears right before it. Relative clauses add extra information about that noun. Examples are shown in (1).
(1) a. Jeg kender damen, som bor i det blå hus
’I know the lady, who lives in the blue house’
b. Han elsker bilen, som han fik i julegave
’He loves the car, that he got as a christmas present’
c. De kender stedet, hvor vi var på ferie
’They know the place, where we went on holidays’
As the examples in (1) show, relative clauses can describe people (1a) and items (1b) as well as places (1c). Relative clauses start with a conjunction som/hvor equivalent to English ’that/which/who/where’. Unlike other conjunctions, relative clause conjunctions simulatanously serve as subject or object, depending on which of those the relative clause refers to (relativizes).
Based on the examples in (1), it would seem that Danish and English coinside to a large extent when it comes to the structure and use of relative clauses, except that Danish makes no distinction between people (’who’) and items (’that/which’) using just som for both. However, certain grammatical facts and variation muddy the waters a great deal, creating trouble for learners of Danish. Both of these issues have to do with grammar, more specifically the difference between subject and object relative clauses.
Som vs. der
So far, we’ve only looked at the conjunctions som and hvor, but there is also the conjunction der, which has a more limited use, because it can only be used when subjects are relativized, not objects. So, examples (2a-b) are fine, but not (2c-d). (The asterisk (*) means non-grammatical).
(2) a. Jeg kender ikke kvinden, der danser med Jakob
’I don’t know the woman, who’s dancing with Jacob’
b. Jeg vinker til drengene, der taler med manden
’I’m waving to the boys, who’re talking to the man’
c. *Jeg kender ikke kvinden, der Jakob danser med
’*I don’t know the woman, whom Jacob is dancing with
d. *Jeg vinker til den mand, der drengene taler med
’*I’m waving to the man, whom the boys are talking to’
A practical recommendation to avoid issues with using der is to avoid it and always use som. However, the learner of Danish must know, that som and der are used interchangeably when subjects are relativized, so (2a-b) might as well have used som in place of der, whereas (2c-d) would only have been grammatical with som.
Optionality of obejct RCs
Another issue with RCs that relativize objects, is that in this context, the conjunction is not obligatory. This means that examples (2c-d) could be correctly expressed as in either (3a-b) and (3c-d).
(3) a. Jeg kender ikke kvinden, som Jakob danser med
’I don’t know the woman, whom Jacob is dancing with’
b. Jeg vinker til den mand, som drengene taler med
’I’m waving to the man, whom the boys are talking to’
c. Jeg kender ikke kvinden, Jakob danser med
’I don’t know the woman, Jacob is dancing with’
d. Jeg vinker til den mand, drengene taler med
’I’m waving to the man, the boys are talking to’
But RCs that relativize subjects do not have the same optionality, as shown in (4).
(4) a. Jeg kender ikke kvinden, som danser med Jakob
’I don’t know the woman, who’s dancing with Jacob’
b. Jeg vinker til drengene, som taler med manden
’I’m waving to the boys, who’re talking to the man’
c. *Jeg kender ikke kvinden, danser med Jakob
’I don’t know the woman, dancing with Jacob’
d. *Jeg vinker til drengene, taler med manden
’I’m waving to the boys, talking to the man’
Note that English does not have this same restriction, which is why the translations in (4c-d) are not marked as ungrammatical.
The extension of place to include ”temporal location”
As mentioned above, the RC conjunction hvor usually relativizes locations (remember (1c) stedet, hvor vi var på ferie ’the place, where we went on holidays’). However, this use can be used for locations in time as well, as shown in (5).
(5) a. Jeg husker det år, (hvor) jeg boede hos min ven
’I remember that year (when) I lived with my friend’
Det var i den tid, (hvor) dinosaurerne levede på jorden
’It was in the time, (when) dinosaurs lived on earth’
As indicated by the parentheses in (5), these conjunctions are optional as they are in English. In addition to the structure in (5), you might also encounter the use of da ’when’ instead of hvor (det år, da jeg boede hos min ven), but the use of hvor is more common.
