2.6.2 Formal relative pronouns
Which are the formal relative pronouns?
Quien/el que/el cual.
Why are they considered more formal than que?
These pronouns not only unite two sentences, they can only be used in certain grammatical situations, either after a preposition or after a comma. These pronouns also tend to be used in more formal contexts, both written and spoken. Refer to the previous page for an example of quien taken from speech. Note that it does occur after a preposition.
El/la que or El/la cual?
El delantal blanco:
LA EMPLEADA se desabrocha el primer botón de su delantal y hace un gesto en el que muestra estar acalorada
Mirar el mundo desde un traje de baño arrendado o envuelta en un vestido barato… o con uniforme de empleada como el que usas tú…
Pedagogía del oprimido:
Liberación a la que no llegarán por casualidad…
Mientras vivan en la realidad en la cual ser es parecer y parecer es parecerse con el opresor, es imposible hacerlo
Pedagogía que haga de la opresión el objeto de reflexión de los oprimido, de lo que resultará el compromiso necesario para su lucha por la liberación, en la cual esta pedagogía se hará y rehará
Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú…:
Los caporales vigilan cada grupo de gente de una cuadrilla que son cuarenta personas o más, las que aguante el camión.
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 relative pronoun referring to? What word in the sentence triggers the use of the more formal relative pronoun?
When do I use el que versus el cual?
There is no real difference between these forms. Some speakers prefer one over the other, others may vary in order to make a text more interesting and less repetitive.
You can see that they do have gender and number agreement. In the el/la/los/las que, the agreement is shown in the article. However, in the forms el/la cual & los/las cuales, both the article and the pronoun have singular/plural agreement.
What about quien?
As the table at the beginning of the chapter shows, quien(es) (which means “who”) does exist in Spanish. However, this form is rapidly declining in speech. It is likely that you will see it more in writing and it is subject to the same rules that apply to using el/la que or el/la/los/las cual(es) that you will see on the next page.
El racismo que México no quiere ver:
Nos enseñaron a sentir vergüenza de quien somos[1]
If you are a native English speaker you may be tempted to use quien anywhere you use who in English, that is any time you refer to a person. This is NOT possible in Spanish.
And finally, cuyo
Cuyo is a relative pronoun that means “whose”. Whose is fairly common in America English, both in spoken and written language. However, it is uncommon in spoken Spanish. It does occur sometimes in written Spanish. We highlight two quotes from this book, Paisajes, that use this word. 5.8.2 La Doctrina del Shock: Reseña and 7.2.2 El papel de la iglesia católica en la difusión de la lengua española. Find the word cuyo on these pages and decode the sentences. To whom does cuyo refer in these quotes?
Activities
- This is a direct quote. According to standard grammatical rules, this should be quienes, but we are using this direct quote from a highly educated native speaker. This suggests that there is some variability in agreement in speech amongst native speakers. This kind of variation tends to be more common in spoken language. ↵
