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The Spanish verb

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Five-minute Spanish lessons:

Ways of addressing people in Spanish 1

Ways of addressing people 2

Talking about possession with "whose" in Spanish

Talking about the weather in Spanish

Translating verbs "have" and "be" in Spanish

Spanish imperatives and subjunctives 1

Imperatives and subjunctives 2

Shopping expressions in Spanish

Ways of expressing "to be" in Spanish 1

Ways of expressing "to be" 2

Spanish relative pronouns 1

Relative pronouns 2

Relative pronouns 3

Relative pronouns 4

Relative pronouns 5

Relative pronouns 6

Spanish prepositions 1

Prepositions 10

Prepositions "en" and "con"

Expressing possibility in Spanish

Expressing possession

Expressing quantities 1

Expressing quantities 2

How to use "a little", "little", "a few" in Spanish

How to say "couple" and "pair"

The Spanish word "igual" and related expressions

Expressing "get" in Spanish 1

Expressing "get" 2

Expressing "get" 3

Expressing "can" in Spanish

The future and the subjunctive in Spanish

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Five-minute Spanish Lessons - Lesson 13.

Relative Pronouns (2)

Who, which, that / el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales, quien, quienes, que, el que, la que

Identifying relative clauses:

Who or that are used when the antecedent (the noun they refer to) is a person. Either is possible. Note that in Spanish there is really only one possibility: the very versatile que, which neither changes with number or gender:

That's the man (the woman) who / that sells the entrance tickets to the cathedral.

Ése (Ésa) es el hombre (la mujer) que vende las entradas para la catedral.

Formal written instructions:

Purchasers who have no password should apply for one.

Los compradores que no tienen contraseña deben solicitarla.

When the antecedent is a thing, English allows which or that in speech and informal writing though often prefers which in formal written style. However, although which may be grammatically possible in speech that is much more common. Spanish still uses que in this type of sentence:

- Excuse me, waiter.

- Yes, madam.

- The snails that you gave us are disgusting. (which is possible)

- Oiga, camarero.

- Sí, señora.

- Los caracoles que nos ha dado son asquerosos.

In a formal letter asking for employment:

I am interested in the position which appeared in El País on Sunday 30th May.

Estoy interesado en el puesto que apareció en El País el domingo 30 de mayo.

After words: all, none, little, few, much, only, everything, something, anything, nothing, and in superlative sentences that is used in spoken and usually in written English too:

This is all that I could find.

Esto es todo lo que he encontrado.

Note preference for lo que with todo.

None that I know.

Ninguno que yo conozco.

The little that you have done has helped a lot.

Lo poco que has hecho ha servido de gran ayuda.

There wasn't much that I could do.

No había mucho que pudiera hacer.

Money is the only thing that matters.

El dinero es lo único que importa.

There's nothing that can be done.

No hay nada que se puede hacer.

This is the best book that I've ever read.

Este es el mejor libro que he leído.

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