Syntaxdifficulty 3
relative-pronouns
que (that — most common, both people and things), quien / quienes (who, whom — only people, mostly after preposition), cuyo/a/os/as (whose — agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor), el/la/los/las que (the one(s) who/that), donde, cuando, como as relatives (no accent — interrogative twins carry one). Relatives never take an accent.
Examples
El hombre que vino.
→ The man who came.
que — most common relative, works for people and things.
El amigo con quien hablo.
→ The friend with whom I speak.
quien preferred after preposition when antecedent is a person.
El libro cuyo autor murió.
→ The book whose author died.
cuyo agrees with `autor` (the thing possessed), not `libro`.
Words in this rule
| Word | Part of speech |
|---|---|
| como | IN |
| cuando | IN |
| que | IN |
| donde | IN |
| cuya | WDT |
| cuyas | WDT |
| cuyo | WDT |
| cuyos | WDT |
| quien | WP |
| quienes | WP |
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