** auxquelles represents les questions, which is both plural and feminine, so we need auxquelles and not auxquels. The questions to which one responds yes or no are rarely interesting. Les questions auxquelles on répond par oui ou par non sont rarement intéressantes. Une langue est un prisme à travers lequel ses usagers sont condamnés à voir le monde.Ī language is a prism across which its users are condemned to see the world.
Make sure that the pronoun agrees in both number and gender to whatever it is describing. The relative pronoun lequel (and all of its forms) replace a preposition (other than de) and a thing/object in a relative clause. I met a woman whose husband is an FBI agent. J’ai rencontré une femme dont le mari est agent du FBI. The book (that) we’re talking about is Les Misérables.
Le livre dont nous parlons est Les Misérables. For example, parler de (to speak of), avoir besoin de (to need), and avoir peur de (to fear). Some expressions in French automatically have de attached to it, hence the usage of dont is required here. Referring to either people or things, dont replaces de + an object in a relative clause. The bottle of Coke that I bought is flat. La bouteille de Coca que j’ai acheté e est sans bulles. In the past tense, que takes both the gender and number of whatever it is referring to, so make sure the past participle is in agreement! The French actress he loves is named Clara Ponsot. L’actrice française qu’il adore s’appelle Clara Ponsot. Unlike qui, with que you make an elision with a vowel and remove the “e” (see the next example). Que also refers to people or things, but it is used as the direct object of a clause, so que is always followed by a subject and not a verb. Despite two vowels being next to one another, the words remain as “qui a” and not “ qu’a“. Keep in mind that qui does not drop the “i” during an elision. (literally: Napoleon was a man who had succeeded alone). Napoléon était un homme qui a réussi tout seul. **Note that because the word films is plural, we need to use the 3rd person plural of the verb montre. People criticize films that display too much nudity. On critique les films qui montrent trop de nudité. Because qui becomes the subject of the sentence it is always followed by a conjugated verb and must agree in number with the antecedent it is referring to. Qui can refer to people or things and is used as the subject of a dependent clause. We’ll discuss when to use each of these reflexive pronouns below. In French, we have relative pronouns such as que, qui, dont, lequel, and où. The man who is talking is the president, Barack Obama. L’homme qui parle est le président, Barack Obama. In English, relative pronouns sometimes can be omitted, however they cannot be in French. Relative pronouns help combine two ideas together into one sentence, typically by representing a word from another clause (known as the antecedent). Now you may be asking, what are relative pronouns? Or when do you use dont in French as opposed to qui and que? Well, have no fear, we will touch upon all of these questions right here! I’ll try to make this painless for all of those who dislike grammar.
Qui and que are the most used relative pronouns in French and their mastery would allow you to skillfully create more complex sentences.