French Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns connect a clause to a noun. French has four at Foundation tier: qui, que, dont, où. Each one corresponds to a specific grammatical role in the clause it introduces.

qui: subject relative

Qui stands in for the subject of the relative clause. It can refer to people, things, or animals - what matters is its role, not its referent.

• L'homme qui parle est mon père. (The man who is speaking is my father.) - qui is the subject of parle
• Le livre qui est sur la table. (The book that is on the table.) - qui is the subject of est
• J'ai un ami qui habite à Tokyo. (I have a friend who lives in Tokyo.)
• C'est moi qui ai fait ça. (It's me who did that.)

A useful test: if a verb follows directly with no other subject, use qui.

que: object relative

Que stands in for the direct object of the relative clause. A different subject appears after it.

• Le livre que je lis. (The book that I'm reading.) - je is the subject, que is the object
• L'homme que tu as vu. (The man that you saw.)
• La maison que nous avons achetée. (The house that we bought.)
• Le film que j'ai vu hier. (The film I saw yesterday.)

Before a vowel, que elides to qu': le livre qu'elle écrit.

The test: if a subject follows the relative pronoun, use que.

Past-participle agreement with que

When the relative clause is in the passé composé with avoir, the past participle agrees with the preceding direct object that que refers to.

• La pomme que j'ai mangée. (The apple that I ate.) - mangée agrees with feminine la pomme
• Les livres que j'ai lus. (The books I read.) - lus agrees with masculine plural les livres
• Les chansons qu'elle a chantées. (The songs she sang.) - chantées agrees with feminine plural

This is the avoir-agreement rule from the passé composé page firing in practice. Flagged here, not drilled - it matters most in writing.

dont: de + noun

Dont replaces any "de + noun" in a relative clause. Use it wherever the non-relative version would have started with de.

Common cases:

• C'est le livre dont je parle. (This is the book I'm talking about.) - parler de quelque chose
• L'homme dont la voiture est rouge. (The man whose car is red.) - the car de l'homme
• Le film dont j'ai oublié le titre. (The film whose title I forgot.) - le titre du film
• La maladie dont il souffre. (The illness he suffers from.) - souffrir de

English uses "whose", "of which", "about which", "from which" - French collapses all of them to dont.

The structure is rigid: dont + subject + verb + the rest. Even when the de-relation is to a possession, the possessor (with dont) comes before the thing possessed.

• L'homme dont la voiture est rouge. ✓
• L'homme la voiture dont est rouge. ✗

où: place and time

Où as a relative covers "where" and "when". Same word as the question word.

• La ville où j'habite. (The city where I live.)
• Le restaurant où nous mangeons. (The restaurant where we eat.)
• Le jour où je suis arrivé. (The day I arrived.)
• L'année où nous nous sommes rencontrés. (The year we met.)

The "when" use is the one English speakers miss - English uses "when", French uses où.

ce qui and ce que: nominal relatives

When the relative refers to "what" rather than a specific noun, French uses ce qui (subject) and ce que (object). These are the equivalent of English "what" in "I don't know what you mean".

• Ce qui me plaît, c'est la musique. (What I like is the music.) - ce qui is the subject
• Ce que je veux, c'est partir. (What I want is to leave.) - ce que is the object
• Je ne comprends pas ce que tu dis. (I don't understand what you're saying.)
• Dis-moi ce qui s'est passé. (Tell me what happened.)

Same qui / que split: ce qui when followed by a verb directly, ce que when followed by a subject.

There's also ce dont: je sais ce dont tu parles (I know what you're talking about). Same de-replacement rule as dont.

lequel and friends (briefly)

After most prepositions, French uses lequel / laquelle / lesquels / lesquelles for things. These agree with the noun they refer to.

• La chaise sur laquelle je suis assis. (The chair I'm sitting on.)
• Les amis avec lesquels je voyage. (The friends I'm travelling with.)

For people after a preposition, French uses qui:

• L'homme avec qui je parlais. (The man I was talking to.)

The full lequel system is Higher-tier on the AQA list. Recognise it; you don't have to produce it confidently at Foundation level.

Worked examples

• Le garçon qui habite à côté est mon ami. (The boy who lives next door is my friend.)
• C'est le film que je voulais voir. (It's the film I wanted to see.)
• L'auteur dont j'ai parlé hier est français. (The author I talked about yesterday is French.)
• La maison où j'ai grandi a été vendue. (The house where I grew up has been sold.)
• Le jour où nous sommes arrivés, il pleuvait. (The day we arrived, it was raining.)
• Je ne sais pas ce qu'elle veut. (I don't know what she wants.)
• Dis-moi ce qui te plaît. (Tell me what you like.)

Common mistakes English speakers make

Using qui for an object because the English "who" or "that" feels like it: le livre qui je lis is wrong, it's le livre que je lis. The subject is je, so the relative is que. Using quand as a relative for time: le jour quand je suis arrivé is wrong, it's le jour où je suis arrivé. And dropping the relative pronoun entirely, which English allows ("the book I read") but French forbids - le livre je lis is broken; it has to be le livre que je lis.

See also

• The French grammar cheatsheet covers the wider A1-B1 foundation.
• The passé composé page covers the participle-agreement rule that fires after que.
• The intermediate French grammar page covers the full lequel system and Higher-tier relative-clause constructions.