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Qui, que, où or dont: find the gap

CEFR A2

What you will learn

  • Distinguish subject qui from direct-object que by rebuilding the relative clause.
  • Choose où for place or time and dont when the construction retrieves a de-complement or possession relationship.

The idea

You do not choose the relative by what it means, but by the hole it fills inside its own clause.

Think of the relative clause as a loose sentence with a piece missing. If what is missing is the subject, the relative is “qui” and a verb follows: “l'homme qui parle”. If what is missing is the direct object, it is “que” and another subject follows: “le livre que je lis”.

That is the whole trick, and it does not depend on whether you are talking about a person or a thing. “Qui” does not mean “who” and “que” does not mean “that”: one fills the subject hole and the other fills the object hole. Look at what comes next and you will know which.

“Où” fills the hole of a place — “la ville où je vis” — and also, which surprises people, of a moment: “le jour où je suis arrivé”. You do not use “quand” inside a relative clause.

“Dont” picks up a “de” that was inside the clause. “Je t'ai parlé de ce film” becomes “le film dont je t'ai parlé”. It works for possession too: “une maison dont les fenêtres sont bleues”.

And one thing French will not let you do: leave the relative out. The sentence always needs that word, however well it may sound in your head without it.

Relative pronouns

fonction manquantepronommodèle
sujetquila personne qui parle
CODque / qu'le livre que je lis
lieu / momentoùla ville où je vis
complément avec de / possessiondontle sujet dont je parle

How it sounds

  • L'homme qui parle est mon oncle.The subject of “parle” is missing, so “qui”.
  • Le livre que je lis est passionnant.“Je” follows: the hole is the object, so “que”.
  • Le jour où je suis arrivé, il neigeait.A moment in time is also picked up by “où”, not by “quand”.
  • C'est le film dont je t'ai parlé.“Parler de” left a “de” hanging, and “dont” picks it up.
Four text-free cards: a person performing an action, an object being observed, a marked place, and a topic being discussed.
Each card represents a different syntactic gap: subject, object, place, or de-complement.

Your turn

Two or three, to check that the bit above landed.

  1. Use this image

    La femme ___ habite en face est médecin.

    qui — A verb with no subject follows: the hole is the subject.

  2. Use this image

    Le film ___ nous avons vu hier était très long.

    que — “Nous” follows and is already the subject: the object is missing.

  3. Use this image

    C'est un sujet ___ tout le monde parle.

    dont — “Parler de” needs “de”, and that “de” is picked up by “dont”.

When it doesn't hold

What breaks the rule, said out loud. Hiding it is what makes you feel cheated in the exam.

  • “Que” elides before a vowel and “qui” never does, however many vowels follow.L'homme qui est là. Le livre qu'il lit.
  • “Dont” also expresses possession, and there French does not repeat the possessive: you never say “dont ses fenêtres”.Une maison dont les fenêtres sont bleues.

What your own language pushes you to say

Wrong Le livre je lis est passionnant.

Right Le livre que je lis est passionnant.

Your mistake is not choosing the wrong one: it is leaving it out. English says “the book I read” with nothing in the middle, and French cannot do that — the word has to be there. Once you have decided to write one, the choice is easy: verb next means “qui”, subject next means “que”.

Curriculum alignment and sources

Once it makes sense

Practise this: qui, que, où, dontLe, la, les, lui or leur: object and positionEn and y: replacing quantities, de, à and placesImparfait or passé composé: setting, habit and eventFuture and conditional: stems, endings and usesThe verb and its preposition: à, de or none