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I've seen that often, together with the relative pronoun, a personal pronoun appears, both in nominative:

e.g. (…) und wir, die wir als Arbeiter gemeint waren, hatten Spaß.

Is this wir a double subject? Is it emphasizing the relative die? I guess it's allowed, as allowed as it would be not to write it. Is there any difference? Is reflexivity needed in order for this nominative duplication be valid?

How about pronouns which would lead to a conjugation-ambiguity?

e.g. (…) wohingegen ich, der ich das gegessen habe/hat, satt war.

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  • Do you have any resources for these phrases? It's very unusual to use a personal pronoun in a subordinate clause, if the pronoun is already clear from context.
    – ScY
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 2:00
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    @Nadim' What would be the sources for? To judge correctness according to author? I'm aware that it is unusual. Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked.
    – c.p.
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 8:28
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    Note "...wir, die sich nach Freiheit gesehnt hatten..." sounds wierd and worse than "...wir, die wir uns nach Freiheit gesehnt hatten..." to me, but "...wir, die als Arbeiter gemeint waren..." sounds pretty much acceptable and doesn't need the double pronoun. Both forms are correct, however. Matter of taste, maybe?
    – tofro
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 12:46
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    @tofro To not handle questions in different languages as duplicates is one of the clearest community votes on Meta that I can recall. Voting to leave open.
    – Matthias
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 20:42

2 Answers 2

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This is perfectly fine, and indeed does not lead to conjugation ambiguity, but resolves a conjugation awkwardness.

... ich, der das gesehen hat, ...

is maybe correct (I am not sure), but at least confusing, because hat does not correspond to ich.

... ich, der ich das gesehen habe, ...

does not have this problem.

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  • This does not answer the main question, i.e. the question about the first sentence, where this amiguity of the verb conjugation does not exist. The verb would be "hatten" even without the second "wir".
    – Beta
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 8:33
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The main clause in the sentence is:

"Und wir hatten Spaß."

The rest of the sentence is a subordinate clause that acts as a "parenthetval" in the sentence: (die wir als Arbeiter gemeint waren),"

This is a perfectly acceptable construction.

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