Spanish 3 / Unit 7: Relative Pronouns and Comparisons
7.1 Que, Quien and Lo Que
Notes
Relative pronouns connect a clause to a noun and mean who, whom, that or which.
- Que is the most common. It refers to people or things and has no gender or number: El libro que compré es interesante. / La chica que habla es mi prima.
- Quien / quienes refers only to people. It is used after prepositions and in commas: La chica con quien hablé es mi prima. / Mis tíos, a quienes visité, viven en Cali. The plural is quienes.
- Lo que means "what" or "the thing that" and refers to an idea, not a specific noun: No entiendo lo que dices. / Lo que más me gusta es viajar.
- Relative pronouns cannot be left out in Spanish, unlike "that" in English: The book I bought = El libro que compré.
Practice
El libro ___ compré ayer es muy interesante.
Que refers to the thing (libro) and is the usual relative pronoun.
Mis tíos, a ___ visité en julio, viven en Cali.
The antecedent is people (plural) and a preposition (a) precedes it, so quienes is used.
No entiendo ___ dices.
Lo que means "what" and refers to an idea or unspecified thing.
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