23-Sep-2011
The use of qui and que could be puzzling. Especially since English speakers tend to mix up ‘who’ and ‘whom’ without regret. In addition there are words like ‘which’ and ‘that’ that have similar role as ‘who’ and ‘whom’.
Mercifully, French has only two and the usage is deterministic. However, given the similarity in the two words, it takes time to figure out when to use ‘qui’ and when to use ‘que’.
From what I have learnt, ‘qui’ comes before a verb, and ‘que’ comes before a pronoun.
C’est elle qui conduit. (It is she who drives).
C’est elle que j’aime. (It is she whom I love).
Qui before verb and que before pronoun. You might as well memorize this.
Alternatively you may use this mnemonic: Since ‘qui’ already has an ‘i’ (and I is a pronoun) it cannot come before a pronoun. I find this easy to remember.
Update: 02-Nov-2011
One lives and learns.
Turns out that qui could also come in front of a pronoun. So, I need to change the rule ("Qui before verb and que before pronoun.") a bit.
1. Que before pronoun.
2. Qui before verb. (note: Que never comes before a verb).
3. Qui before a pronoun, if and only if, the pronoun is a person and appears after a proposition.
Example:
He is the person with whom I plan to travel.
Il est la personne avec qui j'ai l'intention de voyager.
She is the person to whom I go with all my problems.
Elle est la personne à qui je vais avec tous mes problèmes.
By the way, if you notice, the original explanation of 'who = qui' and 'whom = que' still stands.
Update: 08-Nov-2011
An interesting usage of qui came to my notice. I picked up the following sentence from Les Portes Tordues: Mais c'est surtout le vent qui nous fait perdre courage ... (But it is especially the wind that causes us to lose heart ...).
Immediately you can see that the pronoun nous follows qui. Now, this goes against the rule number 2 above which states, "Qui before verb", and nous is a pronoun.
Actually there is no conflict here. nous is an indirect object pronoun in this case, and in French, as you know the when a pronoun replaces an indirect object it moves to the front. That's what has happened in this case. And so, qui is still in front of a verb, but in an oblique way.
Will keep updating this post till mastery is achieved.
The use of qui and que could be puzzling. Especially since English speakers tend to mix up ‘who’ and ‘whom’ without regret. In addition there are words like ‘which’ and ‘that’ that have similar role as ‘who’ and ‘whom’.
Mercifully, French has only two and the usage is deterministic. However, given the similarity in the two words, it takes time to figure out when to use ‘qui’ and when to use ‘que’.
From what I have learnt, ‘qui’ comes before a verb, and ‘que’ comes before a pronoun.
C’est elle qui conduit. (It is she who drives).
C’est elle que j’aime. (It is she whom I love).
Qui before verb and que before pronoun. You might as well memorize this.
Alternatively you may use this mnemonic: Since ‘qui’ already has an ‘i’ (and I is a pronoun) it cannot come before a pronoun. I find this easy to remember.
Update: 02-Nov-2011
One lives and learns.
Turns out that qui could also come in front of a pronoun. So, I need to change the rule ("Qui before verb and que before pronoun.") a bit.
1. Que before pronoun.
2. Qui before verb. (note: Que never comes before a verb).
3. Qui before a pronoun, if and only if, the pronoun is a person and appears after a proposition.
Example:
He is the person with whom I plan to travel.
Il est la personne avec qui j'ai l'intention de voyager.
She is the person to whom I go with all my problems.
Elle est la personne à qui je vais avec tous mes problèmes.
By the way, if you notice, the original explanation of 'who = qui' and 'whom = que' still stands.
Update: 08-Nov-2011
An interesting usage of qui came to my notice. I picked up the following sentence from Les Portes Tordues: Mais c'est surtout le vent qui nous fait perdre courage ... (But it is especially the wind that causes us to lose heart ...).
Immediately you can see that the pronoun nous follows qui. Now, this goes against the rule number 2 above which states, "Qui before verb", and nous is a pronoun.
Actually there is no conflict here. nous is an indirect object pronoun in this case, and in French, as you know the when a pronoun replaces an indirect object it moves to the front. That's what has happened in this case. And so, qui is still in front of a verb, but in an oblique way.
Will keep updating this post till mastery is achieved.
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