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Grammar
Objective: Identify the subject role of qui inside a relative clause, join two sentences that share a noun, and distinguish qui from que.
| Pattern | Role | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| qui + verb (person) | subject of a relative clause | L'homme qui parle | the man who is speaking |
| qui + verb (thing) | subject of a relative clause | Le train qui arrive | the train that is arriving |
| qui + pronominal verb | subject of a relative clause | Le livre qui se lit | the book that is read |
Qui replaces the subject of the relative clause, while que replaces a direct object. The man performs the action of speaking.
Qui never elides before a vowel. The elided form qu' belongs to que, not to qui.
Qui replaces the subject of parle, which is un ami in the underlying second sentence.
Qui refers to a thing, the train, and remains the subject of arrive.
Qui can refer to a person, and the verb that follows agrees with the antecedent in number.
The verb se lit is pronominal, and qui remains the subject throughout the relative clause.
Qui is followed by the auxiliary a in the passé composé, showing that the relative clause can carry any tense.
6 exercises · about 9 minutes
The subject is already expressed by qui, so repeating it with il is a redundancy that French does not allow.
Passer here has no direct object, so the relative pronoun must be the subject qui, not que.
The main-clause verb est appears after the relative clause ends. The relative clause itself is qui passe ce soir.
The main-clause verb réussira is in the future, while the relative clause introduced by qui stays in the present.
Ce qui is the indefinite relative, meaning what in the sense of the thing that.