що (відносний сполучник)

In Ukrainian, relative clauses can be formed in two main ways. The standard, neutral baseline uses який, which must agree with the noun in gender and number. However, the relative що is a standard literary alternative that leans slightly more colloquial. It is extremely common in both speech and literature because it is 'lighter' and easier to use. Note that in this usage, що functions as a relative pronoun (відносний займенник) or conjunctive word, distinguishing it from the true conjunction що used in content clauses. A reliable way to distinguish the two is the replacement test: when the antecedent is a noun, the relative pronoun що can always be replaced by який without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Key Characteristics:

• Invariance with Nouns: When referring to a noun, що never changes to чого or чому. It stays що regardless of whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural.
• Subject Role: When the noun is the subject of the subordinate clause, що is used alone.
• Object/Oblique Roles: When the noun is an object, Ukrainian uses що followed by a personal pronoun in the required case (e.g., що його for masculine/neuter, що її for feminine, що їх for plural). This is called a resumptive pronoun. Crucially, resumptive pronouns are optional (and frequently omitted) for direct objects in the accusative case, especially inanimate ones. However, they are strictly mandatory for oblique objects (genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative cases). The resumptive pronoun does not have to immediately follow що; it can be separated by other words, such as the subject (e.g., фільм, що я його дивився is just as correct as фільм, що його я дивився).
• Pronoun Antecedents: що is the preferred relative word when the antecedent is an indefinite or demonstrative pronoun such as все (everything) or те (that). In these cases, що does decline (e.g., те, чого я не знаю).
• Prepositions: Prepositions can precede a declined що when the antecedent is a pronoun (e.g., те, про що). When referring to a noun, the preposition is placed before the resumptive pronoun instead (e.g., що про неї).
• People vs. Things: While some modern prescriptive style guides advise against using що for people, authoritative Ukrainian linguists explicitly classify this restriction as a myth or hypercorrection. Classic Ukrainian literature freely uses що for humans, and it remains perfectly valid.
• Case Ambiguity: Because що is invariant when referring to nouns, it can sometimes create ambiguity if it is unclear whether the antecedent is the subject or direct object of the relative clause (e.g., Береза, що зламала буря - did the birch break the storm, or did the storm break the birch?). This ambiguity is also common when omitting the resumptive pronoun for animate direct objects (e.g., батько, що бачив сина means 'the father who saw the son', whereas батько, що його бачив син clarifies 'the father whom the son saw'). In such cases, it is better to use який, include the resumptive pronoun, or rephrase.
• Register: It is not just 'slang'; it is a standard literary tool used to avoid repeating the word який too often.

Word Order and Punctuation:
The word що generally should follow the antecedent (the noun or pronoun it refers to) immediately. Commas are always used to set off the relative clause. When a preposition is used with a pronoun antecedent, the comma is placed before the preposition, not before що (e.g., те, про що, NOT те про, що).