Relative pronouns are used to combine sentences and to avoid redundancy in writing. They are used to introduce relative clauses--parts of sentences that describe, define or expand on something already referred to in the sentence--and in English, the relative pronouns are usually who, whom, which, or that:
I need the book which
is in your bag.
Julie is a person whom I hold in the highest esteem.
What is the title of the paper to which you
referred earlier?
In each of these sentences, the relative pronoun is in bold, and the relative clause is in blue (the rest of the sentence could stand alone without it.)
In English, we often omit the relative pronoun (Julie is a person I hold in the highest esteem.) but in French, you must always use it.
To choose the correct relative pronoun in
French, you need to ask two questions:
1. What is the grammatical function of the pronoun in the relative clause?
2. Are we referring to a person or a thing?
Let's ask these questions of our example sentences.
I need the book which is in your bag.
Look at the relative clause --which
is in your bag --
1. is which the subject of the verb is, or its
object, or is it the object of a preposition?
2. Does which refer to a person or a thing?
Likewise, in this example:
Julie is a person whom I hold in the highest esteem.
Look at the relative clause --whom
I hold in the highest esteem --
1. Is whom the subject of the verb hold, or its
object, or is it the object of a preposition?
2. Does whom refer to a person or a thing?
Try this one:
What is the title of the paper to which you referred earlier?
Look at the relative clause --to
which you referred earlier --
1. Is which the subject of the verb referred, or
its object, or is it the object of a preposition?
2. Does which refer to a person or a thing?
Once you've figured out the answer to these two questions, this chart shows which relative pronoun you choose in each case.
2. Relative pronouns in French
| Grammatical function of relative pronoun in sentence | Refers to person | Refers to thing | Means "what" (has no specific antecedent) |
| Subject of sentence | qui Dans ce film, il y a un homme qui adore sa femme. |
qui Dans ce film, il y a une bombe qui explose en ville. |
ce qui Je ne sais pas ce qui est dans le carton. |
| Direct object of sentence | que Michelle est la personne que je préfère. |
que Où sont les devoirs que tu as faits hier soir? |
ce que Ce que j'adore, c'est la pizza aux oignons. |
| Object of preposition: à, sur, avec, etc. |
à qui,
sur qui, avec qui, etc. La personne à qui je parle est mon prof de français. |
auquel (**see
note), sur lequel**, avec lequel**,
etc. La chaise sur laquelle tu es assis est fragile. |
ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, ce avec quoi, etc...[FREN 201s don't need this] |
| Object of preposition: de |
dont La femme dont je suis amoureuse est ici. |
dont L'argent dont j'ai besoin est ici. |
ce dont Je ne sais pas ce dont tu as peur. |
| Object of complex preposition: à côté de, près de, loin de, en face de, etc. |
à côté
duquel,** près duquel,** loin duquel,**etc. La femme près de laquelle j'habite est gentille. |
à côté duquel,** près duquel,** loin duquel,**etc. J'aime bien le bar à côté duquel il y a un jardin. |
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| Time expression (le
jour, l'année, etc.) =means "when" or place expression =means "where" |
-- | où Le jour où je suis née, mon frère a eu une crise. |
-- |