Grammar: Pronouns - Interrogative and Relative
Grammar: Pronouns - Interrogative and Relative
Section 1: Basics of Interrogative Pronouns
- Interrogative pronouns, or question words, are used to form questions.
- They include qui (who), que (what), lequel (which), où (where) and quoi (what).
- Qui and que can be about both persons and objects. Qui as a subject asks ‘who’, while qui as a direct object asks ‘whom’. Que asks ‘what’.
- Quoi is used after prepositions or in conversational styles of French to mean ‘what’.
- Lequel has different forms depending on the gender and number of the noun it replaces: lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles.
- Où is used to ask about location or time.
Section 2: The use of ‘où’ and ‘lequel’
- Où is translated as ‘where’ when asking about location and ‘when’ when asking about time.
- Lequel is used instead of ‘quoi’ or ‘quel’ when referring to a specific object among several.
- Bear in mind that the preposition ‘de’ is used before lequel and its forms when following verbs that use ‘de’.
Section 3: Basics of Relative Pronouns
- Relative pronouns are used to add information about an antecedent, a noun or a pronoun mentioned before.
- French relative pronouns are qui (who, that, which), que (whom, that, which), lequel (who, whom, which), où (where, when), and dont (whose, of which).
- Dont is used to replace “de + noun” and means ‘whose’, ‘of which’, ‘about which’.
Section 4: Agreement and Placement of Relative Pronouns
- Qui, que and dont do not change form regardless of the antecedent’s gender and number.
- Lequel and its forms are used to refer to specific things mentioned earlier and agree in gender and number with the antecedent.
- In general, the relative pronoun comes immediately after its antecedent and serves to introduce the relative clause.