what are the relative pronouns in french?

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on October 23, 2009 at 7:54pm

Que, qui, dont et oú

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 24, 2009 at 1:34pm

Just be aware that dont is a bit more formal than the others (and be aware that this list isn't exhaustive).

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 23, 2009 at 8:13pm

As a starting point, in everyday standard French you essentially have:
- qui which is used as the subject of the relative clause;
- que which is used as the object of the relative clause;
- où which is used to mean "where", "when", "on which" (talking about days, time).

The thing that often confuses English-speaking learners is that in English, the choice of pronoun depends on animacy: so e.g. you can say the friend who helped me but you can't say the computer who helped me (unless you specifically want to personify the computer). In French, qui would be used in either case-- it's subjecthood that matters, not animacy:

L'ami/l'ordinateur qui m'a aidé
The friend/computer that helped me

Another thing that's slightly confusing is that you might be used to thinking of qui as meaning "who", but as a relative pronoun representing the object of the relative clause, que is used, even for a human object, e.g.:

L'homme que j'ai vu hier
The man (that/who) I saw yesterday

In more formal French, the range of relative pronouns is extended a little. For example, dont essentially means whose, of which; a series based on the word quel can also be used: lequel, laquelle, auxquelles etc. These pronouns allow more relationships between the relative pronoun and the rest of the relative clause, e.g. L'homme dont je connais la soeur (the man whose sister I know), La lettre dans laquelle j'ai expliqué tous les détails (informally, you could use où instead of dans laquelle).

In fairly informal (and non-standard) French, these more complex relationships are usually expressed using a formula with que. This system is actually more flexible and allows relationships between the relative clause and the main clause that are very clumsy in standard French. For example:

C'est tout ce qu'on a besoin
That's everything we need
(standard French: tout ce dont on a besoin)

une chose qu'il faut y faire attention
something you have to be careful of
(standard French: ...à laquelle il faut faire attention)

Le copain que chuis sorti avec
the friend I went outh with
(standard French: ...avec qui je suis sorti)

C'est le mec que je travaille avec sa soeur
He's the guy whose sister I work with

This last case shows that the non-standard language can actually set up a more complex relationship between main and relative clause than would be common in standard French.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 24, 2009 at 12:29pm

une chose qu'il faut y faire attention - Le copain que chuis sorti avec - C'est le mec que je travaille avec sa soeur

This is really non-standard, even in informal speech. I never heard that kind of construction, except as a kind of a joke in order to sound like an idiot or a hillbilly talking.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 24, 2009 at 1:43pm

It could be that I've hung out with too many banlieusards, but I'd say that the non-standard construction with que is definitely alive and kicking. My observation would be that it does occur in "middle class" speech too-- at least when speakers get into a "garden path" (i.e. the type of sentence where you start it without having actually planned how the sentence will finish: lui, c'est le mec que l'autre jour...).

Of course it's also true that these types of sentence are used to pastiche speakers of non-standard varieties (e.g. in the songs of Renaud, or by various contemporary writers).

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