дето

The Colloquial Relative Дето

Level 5Sounds Like deto

Човекът, дето го видяхме = човекът, когото видяхме (the man we saw). Дето is spoken and does not change for gender or number.

How It Works

1. Who, which, that. Дето works for people and things, singular and plural:

  • subject: Момичето, дето живее отсреща, свири на пиано. (The girl who lives across the street plays the piano.)
  • object, with a short pronoun: Човекът, дето го видяхме вчера, е моят учител. (The man we saw yesterday is my teacher.) Къде е книгата, дето ти я дадох? (Where is the book I gave you?)

The short pronoun (го, я, ги) shows what дето refers to, since дето itself does not change. The formal equivalents are когото and която without the extra pronoun; see когото.

2. Where. Дето can also mean където: Ще се срещнем там, дето бяхме миналия път. (We'll meet where we were last time.)

3. That. After evaluating words, дето can mean че: Добре, дето дойде! (Good thing you came!)

4. Set phrases. Дето се казва (as they say) is very common, even in fairly careful speech.

5. Register. Dictionaries mark дето as colloquial. It is natural with friends and in dialogue in fiction, but in essays, e-mails at work and official texts, use който, където or че. The older spelling гдето is no longer used.

Examples (6)

  1. Човекът, дето го видяхме вчера, е моят учител.

    The man we saw yesterday is my teacher.

    Formal: човекът, когото видяхме вчера.

  2. Момичето, дето живее отсреща, свири на пиано.

    The girl who lives across the street plays the piano.

  3. Къде е книгата, дето ти я дадох?

    Where is the book I gave you?

    The short pronoun я refers back to книгата.

  4. Ще се срещнем там, дето бяхме миналия път.

    We'll meet where we were last time.

    Here дето means където.

  5. Добре, дето дойде!

    Good thing you came!

    Here дето means че.

  6. Дето се казва, по-добре късно, отколкото никога.

    As they say, better late than never.

Common Mistakes

  • Keeping the short pronoun after the formal когото.

    Човекът, когото го видяхме вчера, е моят учител.
    Човекът, когото видяхме вчера, е моят учител.

    The extra го belongs to the дето pattern. Когото already shows that it is the object, so the short pronoun is not repeated.

  • Combining дето with a form of който.

    Книгата, дето която ми даде, е интересна.
    Книгата, дето ми я даде, е интересна.

    Use one relative word, not both. Either дето with a short pronoun (casual) or която alone (standard): книгата, която ми даде.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

детоLevel 5The Colloquial Relative Дето

Learn This First

Дето follows relative clauses.

Words in This Pattern

детокойто