In order to express your ideas effectively, it is important to know how to link different elements in a sentence. Today’s lesson will teach you how to link ideas back to something already mentioned. To do so, we need the relative pronoun.
- A relative pronoun links two sentences in which the second sentence has an element (thing or person) that has already been mentioned in the first sentence. Depending on the function of this element in the sentence, we can choose the appropriate pronoun.
- Qui is a subject pronoun. It can be equivalent to “who", in English, and sometimes “which, what, or that…”
Listen to Week 16 Day 1 Track 1
→ C’est Pierre qui a écrit cet article. - It was Pierre who wrote this article.
→ Les enfants préfèrent les histoires qui finissent bien. - Children prefer stories that have good endings.
Attention: When used as an interrogative word, the “qui” in French is equivalent to the “who” in English. However, as a relative pronoun, it can replace both people and things (see the example above), as long as this word acts as a subject in the second sentence.
- Que is used when the repetitive element in the second sentence to be linked is the object.
Speaking Practice 1
Listen to Week 16 Day 1 Track 2
→ L’article qu’il a écrit est publié sur internet. - The article that he wrote is published on the internet.
→ J’ai contacté l’orthophoniste que tu as recommandé. - I have contacted the speech therapist you recommended.
- Où refers to a place.
→ C’est l’école où j’ai fait mes études secondaires. - This is the school where I did my high school studies.
- The relative pronoun “où” is also used to replace a moment in time.
→ Le jour où il est parti, tout le monde a pleuré. - The day he left, everyone cried.
- Dont (not to be confounded with the conjunction “donc”) is used for an object that is introduced by the preposition “de”.
Listen to Week 16 Day 1 Track 3
| Il va avoir besoin de son téléphone. | He will need his phone. |
| Voici le téléphone dont il a besoin. | Here is the phone that he needs. |
Speaking Practice 2
Dialogue
Listen to Week 16 Day 1 Track 4
This is the movie that you told me about?
The cinema at the end of your street? The day I go there it will rain something other than water.
Why do you say that?
I do not like the sad look that the salesman at the counter throws at me every time we go.
Come with me, then. Don’t let the worker stop you!
More Relative Pronouns
Speaking Practice 3
A Quick Recap of this Lesson-
Un petit résumé de la leçon
Today, we discussed the different relative pronouns:
Sharpen Your Knowledge with Exercises
Exercise 1
Fill in the gap with the appropriate relative pronoun
Exercise 2
Answer the questions about the dialogue:
Exercise 3
Fill in the gaps using the right relative pronouns.