Whose vs in which?
I had a car that was bought by Enrique. rique bought a car that I had.
The car is the first example in the third example.
The use of Spanish relative pronouns is important because it will make you sound more fluent.
The two most used relative pronouns are quién, which can only be referred to a person, and Quer, which can be referred to people, places, or things. We are going to talk about these two and the others in a future post.
Don't mistake the relative pronouns with the interrogatives. Interrogatives always have an accent over the "e", even though they are spelled the same.
Who is this person? What is the name of the person?
I sold my car to him. He is the person who sold my car.
In English, relative pronouns are optional, but they are compulsory in Spanish.
In Spanish, the most common relative pronoun is quer. It can refer to people and things.
The only thing you have to do. The only thing you have to do is.
Ramn is my roommate.
The first sentence introduces a restrictive clause that restricts the scope of the antecedent. The relative pronoun and the antecedent are not used with a pause or a commas.
The clause in the second example is non-restrictive. A pause in the speech is needed to give more information about the antecedent, so a comma is needed in writing.
This example is part of a non-restrictive clause which can be replaced by quien or Cual.
It is advisable to use an article that matches in number and gender with the preceding one.
He lived in a house. I lived in the house.
The house was three stories high. The house had three levels.
The house he lived in had three floors. The house I live in had three floors.
The relative pronoun must never be at the end of the clause, as the preposition must come before it.
They are going to be used after a word, often after a sentence or after a non-restrictive clause, because they are only used for people.
Elena won the award. Elena won the prize.
These are my colleagues with whom I work.
You can convey the same information in a longer, more complex sentence when you're older.
I own a car that is fast.
A "relative pronoun" is what you can use to do this. A relative pronoun is a word like "which" or "who". The words are relative and relate one clause to another.
They are pronouns because they simplify the sentence by taking the place of a noun. For example,
The robot is called Bumblebee. The robot is a vehicle. She knows an author.
The author is a travel writer. I have a cell phone.
I use my cell phone.
Become.
A robot is a car. She knows of an author who writes travel books.
I use my cell phone to take pictures.
It's easy enough. We need to know what an "antecedent" is to use Spanish relative pronouns correctly.
The Spanish relative pronouns are listed.
There are many situations in Spanish where one English word can be translated in many different ways.
The pronoun which can refer to people, places, or things can be translated into other languages. Simply using that will get you 90 percent of the time.
The robot is making a car. She knows an author who writes travel books.
I use my cell phone to take pictures.
It doesn't matter if the person is a thing or a thing is a person.
What about the other 10%?
quien can only refer to people and is not translated as "who" or "whom."
If the antecedent is separated from its pronoun by a short phrase like a, con, de, en, para, por, and sin, who is preferred? You don't need to worry about gender if the antecedent is plural.
He sends text messages to his friend. He sends text messages to a friend.
I play tennis with many of my friends. I play tennis with many of my friends.
The person who wrote the report is very smart. The person who wrote the report is very smart.
There is a child who needs a present. We need to buy a gift for a boy.
Using a form of quien after con, para, por, and sin helps us avoid creating the same things.
"That," "which," "who," and "whom" are some of the words that are used to describe the forms of elque and elquer.
They aren't very common, but you can hear them in formal situations. Each pronoun needs to agree in gender and number with its previous meaning, which means that each has four different forms.
You are most likely to see el que or el cual in clauses set off by commas or following longer prepositions like sobre (about), al lado de (beside), cerca de (near), debajo de (underneath), in front of ( in front of), inside (inside), behind (behind), and above (on top of):
The hotel is near the beach. The hotel is close to the beach.
The students worked with strong men.
The men were very strong.
The table is old and has children playing on it. The table is old.
The more separation there is between the relative pronoun and the antecedent, the more likely you are to use a form. You should use the relative pronoun when it follows the antecedent.
Compare:
The books we read were gone.
The books we read were gone.
The books that we talked about had vanished. The books that we were talking about had vanished.
It is possible to avoid creating conjunctions by using a form of elque or elcual, rather than the more traditional form of elquer.
If a sentence has more than one possible antecedent and they happen to be different genders, using a form of elque or elcual can help clear up any confusion. For example,
The first section of the exam is very difficult.
The first part of the test is very difficult.
It's not clear if the entire test is difficult or just the first section. We can do things in Spanish to make it clear, even if we can't say anything in English.
Notice how each relative pronoun indicates something.
The first section of the exam is very difficult. The first part of the exam is very difficult.
"He who" or " Those who" are the first two words of many proverbs and other practical sayings. Use a form of el quién to express that idea.
The person who searches finds. He is the one who seeks.
He takes clear water when he gets up early. The person who wakes up early gets clean water.
The early bird is 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
He who kills with iron dies. The one who dies by iron is the one who killed by iron. He who lives by the sword dies.
He is lost. He is lost.
We need to know the gender and number of the previous person in order to use a form of elque. Sometimes this is not possible because the concept is not gender or number specific. We would use the neuter forms in these cases.
I don't want you to know what I heard this morning.
I don't want you to know what I heard.
We don't know the number or gender of the person because the antecedent has not been established. We use the neuter what.
Another example
Economic problems were caused by the price of oil. The price of oil caused economic problems.
The idea that oil prices rose quickly is what this sentence is about. We use the neuter pronoun because we don't have a number or a gender when it comes to oil prices.
