At A2 you learned three relative pronouns: qui, que and où. They will carry you a long way — but they cannot express "the book I'm talking about", "the woman whose son is a doctor", or "the reason why". This lesson adds the rest of the system, and one of its members, dont, has no equivalent in English at all.
| Pronoun | Role | Example |
|---|---|---|
| qui | subject of the relative clause | l'homme qui parle |
| que | direct object | le livre que je lis |
| où | place (and time) | la ville où j'habite |
Remember that que elides (qu'il) and qui never does. And unlike English, French can never drop the relative pronoun: the book I read must be le livre que j'ai lu.
Dont replaces de + noun. That is the whole rule. Its power comes from how many French verbs and expressions are built with de.
| Expression with de | Relative clause | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| parler de qqch | le livre dont je parle | the book I'm talking about |
| avoir besoin de | l'outil dont j'ai besoin | the tool I need |
| avoir envie de | le gâteau dont j'ai envie | the cake I fancy |
| être fier de | le projet dont il est fier | the project he's proud of |
| se souvenir de | le jour dont je me souviens | the day I remember |
| s'occuper de | les enfants dont elle s'occupe | the children she looks after |
Turn the relative clause into a plain sentence. If the noun comes back with de in front of it, you need dont.
le livre … je parle → Je parle du livre → dont.
le livre … je lis → Je lis le livre (no de) → que.
Because possession in French runs on de, dont also translates "whose". Watch the word order carefully: French keeps the definite article, where English drops it.
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| la femme dont le fils est médecin | lah fahm dohn luh fees ay mayd-SAN | the woman whose son is a doctor |
| un livre dont l'auteur est inconnu | uhn leevr dohn lo-tuhr ay tan-ko-NÜ | a book whose author is unknown |
| l'entreprise dont je connais le directeur | lahn-truh-preez dohn zhuh ko-nay luh dee-rek-TUHR | the company whose director I know |
The pattern is always dont + subject + verb. Never dont son fils — the possessive is already inside dont.
When the relative pronoun follows any preposition other than de, you need lequel, agreeing in gender and number with what it refers to.
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | lequel | laquelle |
| Plural | lesquels | lesquelles |
C'est la raison pour laquelle je suis venu. — That's the reason why I came.
Le stylo avec lequel j'écris. — The pen I'm writing with.
Les collègues avec lesquels je travaille.
After a preposition, when the antecedent is a person, French strongly prefers qui: l'ami avec qui je travaille. Avec lequel is not wrong, just stiff. For things, lequel is obligatory: le stylo avec qui is impossible.
À and de contract with lequel exactly as they do with le and les.
| Preposition | m. sg. | f. sg. | m. pl. | f. pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (none) | lequel | laquelle | lesquels | lesquelles |
| à + | auquel | à laquelle | auxquels | auxquelles |
| de + | duquel | de laquelle | desquels | desquelles |
Le problème auquel je pense (penser à) · Les questions auxquelles il a répondu (répondre à).
So when do you need duquel if dont already covers de? Only when the de is buried inside a longer prepositional phrase — à côté de, au sujet de, près de, au milieu de. Then dont cannot reach it:
la maison à côté de laquelle j'habite — the house I live next to. Not dont j'habite à côté.
When there is no noun to point back to — the antecedent is a whole idea, or nothing at all — add ce.
| French | Pronunciation | Role | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ce qui | suh KEE | subject | Je ne sais pas ce qui se passe. |
| ce que | suh KUH | object | Dis-moi ce que tu veux. |
| ce dont | suh DOHN | with de-verbs | C'est ce dont j'ai besoin. |
| ce à quoi | suh ah KWAH | with à-verbs | C'est ce à quoi je pense. |
These also summarise a whole preceding clause: Il est arrivé en retard, ce qui m'a énervé. — "…, which annoyed me." English uses a bare which here; French must use ce qui.
And after tout: tout ce qui brille (all that glitters), tout ce que je sais (all I know).
Où covers time as well as place — and this is obligatory. A relative clause of time never takes quand.
le jour où je suis arrivé (the day I arrived) · l'époque où nous étions jeunes · au moment où il est entré. Writing le jour quand is one of the most recognisable learner errors in French.
Dont is used accurately in writing but is genuinely difficult for native speakers too — la fille dont je t'ai parlé d'elle is a common spoken slip. In formal registers you will also meet lequel as a subject pronoun for clarity: le fils de ma voisine, lequel habite à Lyon…, which disambiguates who lives in Lyon.
Same system. Informal Québécois speech often replaces the whole apparatus with que plus a resumptive pronoun — la fille que j't'ai parlé d'elle, l'affaire que j'en ai besoin. It is widespread and entirely non-standard; recognise it when you hear it and keep dont in anything you write.
1. Dont replaces:
2. Which is correct for "the woman whose son is a doctor"?
3. "The day I arrived" is: