Relative kuris / kuri
Relative Clauses with Kuris
To say the book that I am reading, use kuris: Knyga, kurią skaitau, labai įdomi. Kuris gets gender and number from the noun and its case from its own job in the clause.
How It Works
1. Two questions for every kuris. First, which noun does it refer to? That gives gender and number. Second, what does it do in its own clause? That gives case.
- Tai mergina, kuri dirba banke. (She is the girl who works at the bank.) – subject, nominative.
- Knyga, kurią skaitau, labai įdomi. (The book I am reading is very interesting.) – object, accusative.
- Draugas, su kuriuo kalbėjau, gyvena Kaune. (The friend I talked to lives in Kaunas.) – after su, instrumental.
- Namas, kuriame gyvename, labai senas. (The house we live in is very old.) – place, locative.
2. The forms. Kuris changes like an adjective:
- masculine singular: kuris, kurio, kuriam, kurį, kuriuo, kuriame
- feminine singular: kuri, kurios, kuriai, kurią, kuria, kurioje
- masculine plural: kurie, kurių, kuriems, kuriuos, kuriais, kuriuose
- feminine plural: kurios, kurių, kurioms, kurias, kuriomis, kuriose
3. Whose. The genitive kurio, kurios, kurių means whose: vyras, kurio šuo loja (the man whose dog barks).
4. Never drop it, never strand the preposition. English can say the book I read or the friend I talked to. In the relative-clause pattern taught here, retain kuris, and put its preposition before it: su kuriuo, apie kurį.
5. Commas. Put a comma before the clause and another after it when the sentence goes on (see commas before subordinate clauses).
6. Kuris or kas? After a noun, use kuris. The word kas starts a relative clause after words like tas, viskas or niekas: Viskas, ką sakai, tiesa (Everything you say is true).
Examples (6)
- Knyga, kurią skaitau, labai įdomi.
The book I am reading is very interesting.
Word by Word: Book, which I-read, very interesting.
Kurią is feminine like knyga and accusative as the object of skaitau.
- Draugas, su kuriuo kalbėjau, gyvena Kaune.
The friend I talked to lives in Kaunas.
Su goes in front of kuris and takes the instrumental: su kuriuo.
- Tai mergina, kuri dirba banke.
She is the girl who works at the bank.
Kuri is the subject of dirba, so it is nominative.
- Namas, kuriame gyvename, labai senas.
The house we live in is very old.
Kuriame is locative: in which.
- Žmonės, kuriems padėjome, atsiuntė mums laišką.
The people we helped sent us a letter.
Padėti takes the dative, so the plural form is kuriems.
- Ar pažįsti vyrą, kurio šuo loja visą naktį?
Do you know the man whose dog barks all night?
Kurio means whose.
Common Mistakes
Leaving out kuris, as English sometimes does.
Filmas, mes žiūrėjome, buvo geras.Filmas, kurį žiūrėjome, buvo geras.English can say “the film we watched”, but this Lithuanian relative clause needs kurį, the accusative form of kuris.
Giving kuris the case of the main-clause noun.
Knyga, kuri skaitau, labai įdomi.Knyga, kurią skaitau, labai įdomi.Kuris takes its case from its own clause. It is the object of skaitau, so it must be accusative.
Using kas after a noun.
Knyga, kas guli ant stalo, mano.Knyga, kuri guli ant stalo, mano.After a noun, standard Lithuanian uses kuris. Relative kas follows words such as tas, viskas and niekas.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Relative kuris takes gender and number from the antecedent but case from its own clause.
Related Patterns
- Relative kasRelative Clauses with Kas
Kas starts relative clauses after tas, viskas and niekas instead of after a noun.
Level 4 - Commas Before Subordinate Clauses
Relative clauses are set off with commas.
Level 4 - su + instrumentalWith: Su
Su kuriuo shows a preposition placed before kuris.
Level 2 - Participle Phrases Before a Noun
A participle phrase is a shorter way to describe a noun without kuris.
Level 5
Words in This Pattern
Practice Relative kuris / kuri in Bubblegum
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