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Wie die "Süddeutsche Zeitung" unter Berufung auf Zahlen des Vergleichsportals Verivox berichtet, senken im Mai, Juni und Juli insgesamt 91 Strom- und 80 Gasfirmen ihre Tarife.

Zudem haben über 200 Grundversorger schon seit dem 1. Januar 2023 ihre Preise für Strom und Gas gesenkt, wie Check24 heute mitteilte.

Wo andere versagt haben, habt Ihr Euch erfolgreich gezeigt.

or are they a different grammar phenomenon?

thank you for your time

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The first two examples use a modal Relativadverb wie that refers to the meaning of the whole clause that they're embedded in. If you're coming from English, you could remember the construction like this:

*The suspect is a man, how police says.

(Dudenband 4, Randnummer 1744)

The third example with "wo" is a local Relativadverb which has an implied reference. You can add the reference by yourself:

[Dort] ist es kühl. (lit.: There is it cold.)
[Dort, wo Bäume wachsen,] ist es kühl. (lit.: There, where trees grow, is it cold)
[Wo Bäume wachsen,] ist es kühl.

Implied references are possible with at least some of the relative adverbials (or all?). I marked the implied references with round brackets.

Sie öffnet die Tür [(so), wie sie es immer tut].
Sie glaubt [(daran), woran er glaubt].
Sie verlangt [(das/etwas), worauf sie keinen Anspruch hat].

I also noticed that putting the adverbial in first position does not always sound good with these, but should be grammatically correct? Maybe someone else will add this information to their answer, but I hope it gives you the right direction. (Dudenband 4, Randnummer 857)


Mr Dursley konnte Leute nicht ausstehen, die sich komisch anzogen – wie sich die jungen Leute herausputzten!

From the -, you can tell that this clause was pushed in. The bold clause can stand on its own:

Exclamative sentences have forms of other sentences, but with an exclamation mark (and different intonation).
One way to form an exclamative sentence is through

[W-word] [rest of sentence] [verb]

This same construction shows up in repeated questions:

A: Welche Farbe hat das Auto?
B: Hä?
A: Welche Farbe das Auto hat. <- This is a question

In which case the question is a secondary clause that can stand without the clause it is embedded in:

A: (Ich habe dich gefragt,) welche Farbe das Auto hat.

One thing is clear: Wie in your sentence is not relative. What exactly the grammar is behind these exclamative sentences - I don't know. There is this book written about it, but unfortunately, it is $100.


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  • very grateful for your answer ,thank you so much. I have the tenth edition of Duden die Grammatik 4 and although I don't really speak German yet I couldn't find "Relativadverb" in the back when I was researching on my own. but did find it in the 8th edition online. Your book has units(Rand) in the 1700s?
    – Srmuiel
    May 23 at 14:59
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    @Srmuiel Yes, Dudenband 4 should have over 2000 Randnummers. May 23 at 15:23
  • Hello, is this also the same case as the first two here? > Mr Dursley konnte Leute nicht ausstehen, die sich komisch anzogen – wie sich die jungen Leute herausputzten!
    – Srmuiel
    May 25 at 14:08
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    @Srmuiel I added it to the question May 25 at 16:00

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