In a method according to the invention to determine the relative position (ρ) of a resolver, an exciter winding is excited with a reference signal, a first signal resulting from the reference signal in a first winding is sampled and a second signal resulting from the reference signal in a second winding is sampled, an uncompensated Fourier coefficient for the first signal is determined and an uncompensated Fourier coefficient for the second signal is determined. A compensated Fourier coefficient for the first signal and a compensated Fourier coefficient for the second signal is determined and the relative position of the resolver is determined from the compensated Fourier coefficients. The compensated Fourier coefficients essentially compensate the change of the uncompensated Fourier coefficients due to the phase shift of the resolver and/or the change of the relative position during the sampling.