B1 · Pronouns
Relative pronouns: que, quien
que covers almost everything — the others come after a preposition.
At a glance
- Remember
- que with no preposition — with one, quien for people, el que for things.
- Form
- el tren que llegasubject and object
- Signal words
- que
- quien
- el que
- cuyo
- donde
- Trap
- Wrong:Es el hombre con que hablé ayer.Right:Es el hombre con quien hablé ayer.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Spanish.
| subject and object | el tren que llega |
| person after a preposition | la amiga con quien viajo |
| thing after a preposition | el tema del que hablamos |
| possession | el autor cuyo libro leí |
| after a comma, person | Mi hermano, quien vive en Lima, … |
| place | el pueblo donde nací |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
que covers people and things with no preposition.
La carta que llegó era suya.The letter that came was his.
After a preposition it is quien or el que.
Es la persona a quien llamé.That is the person I rang.
cuyo agrees with what is owned.
Un país cuyas playas son famosas.A country whose beaches are famous.
donde replaces «in which» for places.
La ciudad donde crecí ha cambiado.The city where I grew up has changed.
Example sentences
El coche que compramos es azul.The car we bought is blue.
La chica de la que te hablé viene hoy.The girl I told you about is coming today.
Es un tema del que no quiero hablar.It is a subject I do not want to talk about.
El pintor cuyos cuadros vimos murió joven.The painter whose pictures we saw died young.
6 more example sentences
No entiendo lo que dices.I do not understand what you are saying.
La empresa para la que trabajo es pequeña.The company I work for is small.
Aquel es el bar donde nos conocimos.That is the bar where we met.
Un amigo cuyo nombre no recuerdo.A friend whose name I cannot remember.
Los que quieran venir, que avisen.Anybody who wants to come should say so.
Es el motivo por el que me fui.That is the reason I left.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The relative gets dropped, as English allows: «the book I bought» becomes el libro compré. Spanish never leaves out the que. And after a preposition plain que is not enough with people: it is el hombre con quien hablé, never con que.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Que is the workhorse: it stands for people and things, as subject and as object, and it never changes. El libro que compré, la mujer que llamó. Unlike English it can never be left out — «the book I bought» must have its que.
After a preposition that stops working. There, people take quien or el que: la mujer con quien hablé. Things take el que, la que or el cual: la casa en la que vivo. And the preposition can never sit at the end, as it happily does in English.
Cuyo is «whose» and agrees not with the owner but with the thing owned: el escritor cuyas novelas leímos — cuyas, because novelas is feminine and plural.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: ser · hablar · haber · llegar · cambiar · venir · querer · comprar