Five-minute Spanish Lessons - Lesson 14.

Relative Pronouns (3).

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

I continue with the theme of identifying relative clauses. Now let's look at some peculiarities.

In English the relative pronoun is often left out if it is the object of an identifying relative clause:

I can't find the sausages that / which my mother gave me yesterday.

or,

I can't find the sausages my mother gave me yesterday.

No encuentro las salchichas que mi madre me dio ayer.

She's the person who / that I don't want to get to know.

or,

She's the person I don't want to get to know.

Ella es la persona que yo no quiero llegar a conocer.

Anything that you do is fine by me.

or,

Anything you do is fine by me.

Cualquier cosa que haga, por mí no hay problema.

The omission of the relative pronoun is not possible in Spanish.

So that:

No encuentro las salchichas mi madre me dio ayer.

...is NOT possible but must read...

No encuentro las salchichas que mi madre me dio ayer

English also allows a gerund (verb + ing) to replace a relative pronoun yet Spanish cannot do this in these following sentences:

There was a drawer that contained socks.

or,

There was a drawer containing socks.

Había un cajón que contenía calcetines.

and not,

Había un cajón conteniendo calcetines.

What you've said is a reply amounting to a refusal.

Lo que has dicho es una respuesta que equivale a una negativa.

However, you should not get confused here with the use of continuous tenses, which do allow a gerund in Spanish:

There were children who were playing in the street.

or,

There were children playing in the street.

Había niños que estaban jugando en la calle.

or,

Había niños jugando en la calle.

Learners of Spanish should note that que is often (though not always) used alone (ie. without el / la / los / las, which I'll talk about later):

After the preposition a (but not when the antecedent is a person):

El libro a que me refiero es muy bueno.

The book (that / which) I'm referring to is very good.

But,

La persona al que / a quien dio una paliza está en el hospital.

The person (that / who) he gave a hiding to is in hospital.

After con (but not when the antecedent is a person):

Los ingredientes con que se hace una tortilla están en el armario.

The ingredients (that / which) you make an omelette with are in the cupboard.

After de: (but not when it means "from"):

Los acontecimientos de que tengo noticia son estos.

The only events (that) I know about are these.

And after en (but not when it means "inside"):

La manera en que lo dijo me dejó pasmado.

The way (that / in which) he said it left me flabbergasted.

Learners of Spanish note that en que is often used when the antecedent is a period of time:

La noche (en) que vino a verme...

The night (that) he came to see me...

Yet, only que is usually used with the time words: momento, día, semana, mes, año:

El día que llegó mi hermana se puso a llover.

The day (that) my sister arrived it started to rain.

El mes que ocurrió...

The month (that) it happened in...

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