There are five relative pronouns in French: qui, que, dont, où, and lequel. There are also several variations of those, such as ce qui, ce dont, or lesquelles and lesquels.
French relative pronouns are equivalent to seven English relative pronouns and adverbs: that, when, where, which, who, whom, and whose.
French
English
C'est George qui a mangé la tarte.
It was George who ate the pie.
Dont
Rule 1: The pronoun dont replaces a person or thing previously introduced with the preposition de. It does not change according to gender or number. It can be translated differently depending on the context. Most of the time, dont means "of which" and "whose".
French
English
C’est la ville dont j’ai parlé.
This is the city of which I spoke.
Les enfants dont il est le père sont terribles.
The children whose father he is are terrible.
Où
Rule 2: The relative pronoun où is invariable and most of the time refers to a place. Où means "where".
French
English
J’aime cette ville où j’ai grandi.
I love the city where I grew up.
Rule 3: Sometimes où can also relate to a point in time. This is the case with the following expressions: le jour où, le moment où, l’année où, etc.
French
English
Novembre est un mois où il pleut beaucoup.
November is a month in which it rains a lot.
Que
Rule 4: The relative pronoun que is invariable and introduces a relative sentence in which it is the object. It can refer to both people and things.
French
English
Le film, que j’ai vu hier, était drôle.
The movie, [which] I saw yesterday, was funny.
Rule 5: Before the vowel and the silent "h", we use qu‘.
French
English
Le film qu'il a entendu parler...
The movie [which] he heard about....
Note: In English, we can often leave out this relative pronoun, but never in French.
Qui
Rule 6: The relative pronoun qui is invariable and introduces a relative sentence in which it’s the subject. It can refer to people or objects.
French
English
Les chats sont des animaux qui mangent des souris.
Cats are animals that eat mice.
Lequel, Laquelle, Lesquels, Lesquelles
Rule 7: The relative pronoun lequel usually represents things or people in a relative clause that comes after prepositions (dans, pendant, pour, parmi, ...) or prepositional expressions (à côté de, ...).
French
English
Le bureau dans lequel je travaille est petit.
The office in which I work is small.
Rule 8: The forms of lequel agree in number and gender with the word it refers to.
French
English
Voilà la ville près de laquelle il habite.
This is the town near which he lives.
Note: If the pronoun doesn’t replace a thing but a person, we can also simply use qui.
French
English
Le client pour qui je travaille m’énerve.
The client for which I work gets on my nerves.
À + lequel
Rule 9: When lequel is used with à, pronoun and preposition are usually merged into one word.
- à + lequel = auquel
- à + laquelle = à laquelle
- à + lesquels = auxquels
- à + lesquelles = auxquelles
French
English
Les problèmes auxquels tu penses sont difficiles à résoudre.
The problems that you are thinking about are difficult to solve.
De + lequel
Rule 10: When lequel is used with de, pronoun and preposition are also usually merged into one word.
- de + lequel = duquel
- de + laquelle = de laquelle
- de + lesquels = desquels
- de + lesquelles = desquelles
French
English
Les fleurs près desquelles je suis sentent très bon.
The flowers near where I am smell very good.
Bonus: Ce qui, Ce que, Ce dont
Rule 11: We use the relative pronouns ce qui, ce que, ce dont when the pronoun does not refer to a single word in the sentence, but rather to an entire clause. They mean "what".
- we use ce qui as the subject of the relative sentence
French
English
Je sais ce qui t’intéresse
I know what interests you.
- we use ce que as a direct object of the relative sentence. (ce qu' in front of vowels and mute "h")
French
English
Tu peux dire ce que tu veux.
You can say what you want.
- ce dont is used for an indirect object introduced with de
French
English
Elle sait ce dont j’ai besoin.
She knows what I need.
Quiz
1/4
Translate: July is the month when I was born.
0
correct answers.