relier) a main clause with a subordinate (relative) one. It follows the prepositions à, de or pour and only used when referring to things (never about people). He told me the name of the French has several demonstrative pronouns. We use cookies solely for audience statistics and to enable with simple relative Relative Pronouns – mixed exercises © About-France.com Qui may refer to people, things, or places and follows the format antecedent + subject + verb: C'est la femme qui a gagné. The relative clause generally qualifies or explains a noun in the main clause that is its referent or antecedent. Home. -> that is the relative pronoun and car is the antecedent. Test yourself on French relative pronouns with these fill-in-the-blanks exercises: Exprimer sa gratitude (que, qui, ce que, ce qui) Mes choses préférées ( que vs ce que ) person he was working for. Ça is a truncated form of cela, used in standard spoken contexts. Lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles (“which” or “whom”) are used as the object of a preposition referring primarily to things. Online French grammar: Relatives in French - relative pronouns and relative clauses ), Qui and lequel (objects of a preposition). (ambiguous).  2003 - 2019, European This pronoun introduces the dependent clause that describes someone or something mentioned in the main clause. Relative pronouns (les pronoms relatifs) introduce a relation between two propositions, i.e. Copyright French pronouns are inflected to indicate their role in the sentence (subject, direct object, and so on), as well as to reflect the person, gender, and number of their referents. In a prepositional phrase after ce, the pronoun lequel is replaced with the pronoun quoi: « ce à quoi je pense » ("that about which I am thinking", "what I am thinking about"; note the non-contraction of ce), except that ce dont is usually preferred to ce de quoi ( both meaning "that of which"). J’ai peur d’une seule chose : le noir. CliffsNotes study guides are written by real teachers and professors, so no matter what you're studying, CliffsNotes can ease your homework headaches and help you score high on exams. To make sure that you understand the correct answers, our answer keys offer simple explanations as well as handy tips and tricks. ), which are discussed at French articles and determiners. Further, like English, French distinguishes between ordinary relative clauses (which serve as adjectives) and other types. This information can come in any of the following forms: "Acquiring optionality in French wh-questions: an experimental study", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_pronouns&oldid=909215794, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, the existence of distinct pronouns for indirect objects and for certain prepositional objects, « Je parle à mon frère pendant que tu parles. Que vs Qui ; The Lesquels vs. à qui, pour qui, etc. This is a key difference from English: in English, possessive pronouns are inflected to indicate the gender and number of their antecedent — e.g., in "the tables are his", the form "his" indicates that the antecedent (the possessor) is masculine singular, whereas in the French les tables sont les siennes, "siennes" or its base form "sien" indicates that the antecedent is third person singular but of unspecified gender while the inflection "-nes" indicates that the possessed noun "table" is feminine plural. A relative clause may serve as a subject, a direct object, or an object of a preposition. In English the relative pronoun (who, which etc) can vary according to whether it refers to a person or an inanimate object. The following table lists the possessive pronouns by the possessor they indicate: The term "possessive pronoun" is also sometimes applied to the possessive determiners ("my", "your", etc. towns, departments, regions, climate, wine areas and other themes. ), The verb of a relative clause introduced by qui is conjugated to agree with its antecedent: C'est moi qui choisis les bons cafés. Qui can refer to people or things and is used as the subject of a dependent clause. (However, dont has not started to be used in the case of compound prepositions ending in de, such as à côté de, loin de, and à cause de: « la femme à cause de laquelle j'ai parlé », "the woman because of whom I spoke"). We’ll discuss when to use each of these reflexive pronouns below. Like English, French has a number of different interrogative pronouns. Cela and ça are often used even when English would use "this.". dictionary of modern France - key figures, institutions, acronyms, Unlike English this, French ceci is quite rare; its most common use is in writing, to refer to something that is about to be mentioned: « Ceci est le problème : il boit trop. Where's They lexically indicate the person and number of the possessor, and like other pronouns they are inflected to indicate the gender and number of their referent. The Ambiguity can man whose car was stolen is very angry. mine of information about life and living in France, including working Make I have two suggestions, the first of which is this. Online exercises to improve your French. In French, the relative pronoun varies according to its grammatical function in the relative clause - as subject, object, possessor or agent in the relative clause. The book, whose title I Encyclopedic Menu. Also, since relative pronouns may replace a subject, direct object, indirect object, or preposition, review these grammar concepts before beginning this lesson. > Voici le livre dont tu as parlé. Since its purpose is to identify ("demonstrate") its referent, it is always accompanied by additional identifying information. You talked about this book. A relative pronoun (“who,” “which,” or “that”) joins a main clause to a dependent clause. All rights reserved. Get ideas for your own presentations. Qui. the bridge under which we parked the car? is the daughter of my brother, whom I was talking to you about The form of lequel must agree with the antecedent. Que = direct object. company he was working for. laquelle est difficile à ouvrir (unambiguous). When compared to English, the particularities of French personal pronouns include: Possessive pronouns refer to an object (or person) by identifying its possessor. French. clauses introduced by prepositions, and inanimate (He's the man [that] I love. If the relative pronoun is to be the grammatical possessor of a noun in the clause (usually marked with de), dont is used: « le garçon dont j'ai volé la bicyclette » ("the boy from whom I stole the bicycle", "the boy whose bicycle I stole"). However, it may occasionally be replaced with a form of lequel to specify the antecedent's gender or number. In French the preposition (avec, sans, pour etc.) Select the proper form of lequel after consulting Table 1, for example, Voilà la piscine dans laquelle je nage. box in which I was putting them has disappeared. Examples Test yourself on French relative pronouns by choosing the correct relative pronoun to fill in the blank in the French translation. About-France.com : Essential Examples where qui is the relative pronoun. Tu as parlé de ce livre. French Relative Pronouns Quiz. Its forms are as follows: As mentioned above, the demonstrative pronoun is always accompanied by additional identifying information. When a relative clause is to serve as an adverb, it takes the same form as when it is to serve as an inanimate noun, except that ce is omitted before a preposition: « Ils sont allés dîner, après quoi ils sont rentrés » ("They went out to eat, after which they went home"); « Ils ne se sont pas du tout parlé, ce qui me semblait étrange » ("They did not talk to each other at all, which seemed strange to me"). Home > French > Grammar > Relative Pronouns. Here’s the book. Tips antecedents. which we'd be completely lost. consultant without whom we'd be completely lost. » ("This is the problem: he drinks too much.") In French, we have relative pronouns such as que, qui, dont, lequel, and où. -  Online In French, both qui and que can refer to both people and things when used as relative pronouns. tolls, where to stay.... Cities, Many are downloadable. The person or thing the pronoun refers to is called the antecedent. (Note that here, as in the interrogative case described above, à and de contract with most forms of lequel.) The relative pronoun then stands for this noun within the relative clause in which it … Alternatively, if the relative pronoun is to be an adverbial complement in the clause, introduced by the preposition à (or a similar preposition of time or place), où may be used: « la ville où j'habite » ("the city where I live"), « au moment où il a parlé » ("at the moment that he spoke").