The choice between die and dat depends on the gender and number features of the antecedent of the pronoun: dat is used for singular neuter nouns, and die in all other cases. This is illustrated in Table 10.

The D-pronouns must be considered personal pronouns, since they can occur as subject or object of the relative clause, as is illustrated in (426a-c).

However, example (427a) shows that D-pronouns are special in that they do not occur as complements of prepositions at all; they trigger R-pronominalization across-the board; cf. Subsection III.

The choice between wie and wat depends on whether the antecedent is human or not. Since the W-pronouns are typically used in free relative clauses, this antecedent is usually left implicit. The W-pronouns can be used as either the subject or the object of the relative clause. Example (428c) is perhaps slightly marked due to the fact that it is potentially ambiguous: both the relative pronoun and the personal pronoun jeyou can in principle be interpreted as indirect objects. It is hard to construct natural-sounding examples for wat with the function of indirect object, due to the fact that indirect objects are typically human.

As discussed in Section 17.3.2.2, sub I, the use of W-pronouns is subject to several restrictions when the antecedent is overtly realized. In this context, however, wie can easily be used as the complement of a preposition. The pronoun wat, on the other hand, cannot be used in this position: Subsection III will show that it triggers R-pronominalization, just like the referential pronoun het.

In relative clauses, the R-pronoun waar is typically used as the complement of a preposition. The pronoun is not sensitive to the nominal features of the antecedent and can be used with both human and non-human antecedents. This means that example (429a) freely alternates with the form in (430a), despite normative pressure in favor of the former variant. The grammatical counterpart of example (429b) is the one in (430b). R-pronominalization is possible with PP-complements of the verb as well as with certain adverbial PPs; examples of the latter can be found in Section 17.3.2.2, sub I.

The previous subsections have shown that the relative pronouns in (425) can be used as arguments of the verb, and should therefore be considered personal pronouns. This does not mean, however, that they can occur in all positions. We have seen that there are several additional constraints that regulate their distribution. A more detailed discussion of relative pronouns can be found in Section 17.3.2.2, sub I.