A2
qui, que, où, dont
How the French relative pronouns qui, que, où and dont work, and why the choice has nothing to do with animacy.
English chooses between who and which by whether the thing is a person. French does not care about that at all. It cares about the pronoun’s grammatical job.
qui is the subject
l’homme qui parle
the-man who speaks
the man who is speaking
le train qui arrive
the train which arrives
the train that’s arriving
A person and a train, both qui, because both are doing the verb.
que is the object
le livre que je lis
the book that I read
the book I’m reading
la femme que j’ai vue
the woman that I-have seen (f.)
the woman I saw
le livre qui je lis
le livre que je lis
Je is already the subject of lis, so the relative pronoun is the object and must be que. The test is what follows: a verb means qui, a subject means que.
que cannot be dropped
English deletes it constantly — the book I’m reading. French never does.
le livre je lis
le livre que je lis
The relative pronoun is compulsory in French, however redundant it looks from English.
où covers place and time
le jour où je suis arrivé
the day where I am arrived
the day I arrived
French uses où for when in a relative clause, which is unexpected but consistent.
dont replaces de
Whenever the phrase would have contained de — parler de, avoir besoin de, or a possessive.
le livre dont je parle
the book of-which I speak
the book I’m talking about
la femme dont le fils est médecin
the woman of-whom the son is doctor
the woman whose son is a doctor
Dont is the single word covering whose, of which and about which, and it is worth learning through the verbs that take de.