2.6.1 Relative Pronouns
What are relative pronouns?
A relative pronoun is a word or group of words that introduce a relative clause. A relative clause is a kind of dependent clause which cannot function as a sentence by itself. Here are the relative pronouns in Spanish with their English translations:
Spanish |
English |
| que | that |
| quien | who |
| donde | where |
| el/la/los/las que | which |
| el/la cual & los/las cuales | |
| lo que | that. NOT interchangeable with que |
| cuyo | whose |
Please note that qué and que or cuál and cual, or quién and quien are NOT interchangeable. The forms with accents indicate a question and without they are pronouns! We won’t discuss accent rules until chapter 7 but as a general rule, accents are not decorative and they communicate information to us as we read Spanish.
How to use que
Far and away the most common relative pronoun in speech is que. You probably already use this at least sometimes when you speak and write Spanish so this part of the chapter may be a review of what you already know.
Let’s take a look at some examples from readings in this chapter:
El mito de la Caverna:
Este mito, que es en realidad una alegoría, es una representación de la vida humana en un determinado sentido.
El delantal blanco:
Se ha prendido el pelo hacia atrás y su aspecto ya difiere algo de la tímida muchacha que conocemos.
Al principio, hay una sonrisa irónica en sus labios que desaparece luego al interesarse por la lectura.
EL CABALLERO DISTINGUIDO: (Haciendo un gesto hacia la dirección en que se llevaron a LA SEÑORA.)
El racismo que México no quiere ver:
Afortunadamente yo entré en el cine en un momento en que cambiaron las historias que se contaban.
Activity in class
Working with a partner in class, translate the above examples into English. There may be more than one possible answer.
Next, look at the sentence in Spanish. What word is que referring to?
Using que in a sentence
When using que you are taking information that could exist in two separate sentences and combining it into one longer, more descriptive sentence. These are exactly the kinds of sentences that you need to produce both in college level speaking and writing.
Example:
Hay muchas plantas en el jardín bonito. Las plantas en el jardín están todas verdes.
Combined you could say: Las plantas que están en el jardín bonito están todas verdes.
Activity
