Les pronoms relatifs qui, que, dont

Unité GR-20 · campagne 9 · который se casse en trois : qui, que, dont.

Russian covers almost every relative clause with one inflected word, который. French splits the same job into three uninflected words, chosen by the function of the gap inside the relative clause — not by the gender or number of the noun.

The test is mechanical. Rebuild the relative clause as a full sentence and look at what is missing:

• ___ habite au troisième étage — the subject is missing → qui.
• nous avons vu ___ hier — the object is missing → que.
• j'ai besoin de ___ — a de-phrase is missing → dont.

Dont is the one Russian gives no warning about: it absorbs the de of parler de, avoir besoin de, être fier de, se souvenir de, and of possession — un collègue dont je connais la sœur. If the verb builds with de, reaching for que is the classic error: l'outil ~~que~~ j'ai besoin is exactly the calque to unlearn.

Two side effects worth noticing now. Que elides before a vowel (le livre qu'*il lit) but qui never does (la femme qui arrive). And a que relative in the passé composé wakes up the GR-10/GR-14 agreement rule — *les collègues que tu as invités** — because the COD now stands before the verb. The relative system and the participle system are one machine; the practice makes you run it whole.

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