Easy Learning Grammar FrenchGrammar | Wörterbuch | Video | Thesaurus | Schule | Übersetzer | Scrabble | Blog
Anmelden | Einloggen
 
Easy Learning French
Menü
Wörterbuch Video Thesaurus Schule Übersetzer Grammatik Scrabble Blog Anmelden Einloggen

Relative pronouns: qui, que, lequel, auquel, duquel - Easy Learning Grammar French

What is a relative pronoun?
In English a relative pronoun is one of the words who, which and that (and the more formal whom) which can be used to introduce information that makes it clear which person or thing is being talked about, for example, The man who has just come in is Ann’s boyfriend; The vase that you broke was quite valuable.
Relative pronouns can also introduce further information about someone or something, for example, Peter, who is a brilliant painter, wants to study art; Jane’s house, which was built in 1890, needs a lot of repairs.
  • In French, the relative pronouns are qui, que, lequel, auquel, and duquel.

1 qui and que

  • qui and que can both refer to people or things.
 Relative pronounMeaning
Subjectquiwho
which
that
Direct objectquewho, whom
which
that
Mon frère, qui a vingt ans, est à l’université.My brother, who’s twenty, is at university.
Est-ce qu’il y a un bus qui va au centre-ville?Is there a bus that goes to the town centre?
Les amis que je vois le plus sont Léa et Mehdi.The friends (that) I see most are Léa and Mehdi.
Voilà la maison que nous voulons acheter.That’s the house (which) we want to buy.
Tipque changes to qu’ in front of a word beginning with a vowel and most words beginning with h.
  • qui is also used after a preposition such as à, de or pour to talk about people.
la personne à qui il parlethe person he is speaking to
les enfants pour qui j’ai acheté des bonbonsthe children I bought sweets for
TipIn English we often miss out the object pronouns who, which and that. For example, we can say both the friends that I see most, or the friends I see most, and the house which we want to buy, or the house we want to buy. In French you can NEVER miss out que or qui in this way.

2 lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles

  • lequel (meaning which) is used after a preposition such as à, de or pour to talk about things. It has to agree with the noun it replaces.
 MasculineFeminineMeaning
Singularlequellaquellewhich
Plurallesquelslesquelleswhich
le livre pour lequel elle est connuethe book she is famous for
la table sur laquelle j’ai mis mon sacthe table I put my bag on
  • Remember that à and de combine with the definite article le to become au and du, and with les to become aux and des. lequel/lesquels/lesquelles combine with à and de as shown in the table. laquelle doesn’t change.
 + lequel+ laquelle+ lesquels+ lesquellesMeaning
àauquelà laquelleauxquelsauxquellesto which
deduquelde laquelledesquelsdesquellesof which
  • For more information on à and de, see The definite article: le, la, l’ and les.
Grammar Extra!dont means whose, of whom, of which, about which and so on. It can refer to people or things, but its form NEVER changes.
la femme dont la voiture est en pannethe woman whose car has broken down
les films dont tu parlesthe films you’re talking about
Key points
  • qui and que can both refer to people or things: qui is the subject of the part of the sentence it is found in; que is the object.
  • In English we often miss out the object pronouns who, which and that, but in French you can never miss out que or qui.
  • After a preposition you use qui if you are referring to people, and lequel if you are referring to things – lequel agrees with the noun it replaces.
  • à + lequel auquel
    à + lesquels auxquels
    à + lesquelles auxquelles
  • de + lequel duquel
    de + lesquels desquels
    de + lesquelles desquelles
PreviousNext
Inhaltsverzeichnis
  • Nouns
    • Using nouns
    • Gender
    • Forming plurals
  • Articles
    • Different types of article
    • The definite article: le, la, l’ and les
    • The indefinite article: un, une and des
    • The partitive article: du, de la, de l’ and des
  • Adjectives
    • Using adjectives
    • Making adjectives agree
    • Word order with adjectives
    • Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives
    • Demonstrative adjectives: ce, cette, cet and ces
    • Possessive adjectives
    • Indefinite adjectives
  • Pronouns
    • Personal pronouns: subject
    • Personal pronouns: direct object
    • Personal pronouns: indirect object
    • Emphatic pronouns
    • Possessive pronouns
    • en and y
    • Using different types of pronoun together
    • Indefinite pronouns
    • Relative pronouns: qui, que, lequel, auquel, duquel
    • Demonstrative pronouns: ce, cela/ça, ceci, celui
  • Verbs
    • The three conjugations
    • The present tense
    • The present tense: regular -er (first conjugation) verbs
    • The present tense: regular -ir (second conjugation) verbs
    • The present tense: regular -re (third conjugation) verbs
    • The present tense: spelling changes in -er verbs
    • The present tense: irregular verbs
    • The imperative
    • Reflexive verbs
    • The imperfect tense
    • The future tense
    • The conditional
    • The perfect tense
    • The pluperfect tense
    • The passive
    • The present participle
    • Impersonal verbs
    • The subjunctive
    • Verbs followed by an infinitive
    • Other uses of the infinitive
  • Negatives
  • Questions
    • How to ask a question in French
    • Question words
  • Adverbs
    • How adverbs are used
    • How adverbs are formed
    • Comparatives and superlatives of adverbs
    • Some common adverbs
    • Word order with adverbs
  • Prepositions
    • Using prepositions
    • à, de and en
    • Some other common prepositions
    • Prepositions consisting of more than one word
    • Prepositions after verbs
    • Prepositions after adjectives
  • Conjunctions
    • et, mais, ou, parce que and si
    • Some other common conjunctions
    • The conjunction que
  • Numbers
  • Time and Date
  • Some common difficulties
  • The Alphabet
Die letzten Wortvorschläge
POC [meaning] 22 Feb 2019
hyperandrogenism 18 Feb 2019
snack [sense] 18 Feb 2019
hawaji 18 Feb 2019
multipen 18 Feb 2019
Einreichen Mehr sehen
Create an account and sign in to access this FREE content
Register now or login in to access
Im Easy Learning Grammar French blättern
  • A
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • Q
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
Alle Wörterbücher anzeigen
  • Mehr
  • API
  • B2B-Partnerschaften
  • Werbung
  • Wörterbanken
  • Collins COBUILD
  • Collins ELT
  • Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen
  • Kontaktieren Sie uns
  • Sprachen
  • Englisch
  • Video
  • Thesaurus
  • Grammatik
  • Französisch
  • Deutsch
  • Spanisch
  • Italienisch
  • Chinesisch
  • Portugiesisch
  • Hindi
  • WotY
  • Scrabble
  • Promotion
  • Resources
  • School
  • Diese Seite in
  • Deutsch
  • English
  • American
  • Italiano
  • Español
  • Português
  • हिंदी
  • 简体中文
© Collins 2019