Language/French/Grammar/Relative-pronouns

Relative pronouns : lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles

The relative pronouns "lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles" can be used as subjects or direct objects.

They're also used after the following prepositions : sur, sous, avec, sans, pour, dans, chez, par...

After a preposition, the relative pronoun agrees in gender and number with the noun to which it relates. As subject, agreement (singular or plural) depends on the sense of the sentence.

Note :

• duquel, desquels, desquelles are contractions of de + lequel, de + lesquels, de + lesquelles
• auquel, auxquels, auxquelles are contractions of à + lequel, à + lesquels, à + lesquelles

Summary table

	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
	lequel	laquelle	lesquels	lesquelles
à +	auquel	à laquelle	auxquels	auxquelles
de +	duquel	de laquelle	desquels	desquelles

Examples

• Parmi ces objets, lequel choisissez-vous ? (lit. : Among these objects, which one do you choose ?)

• Les toiles accrochées au mur sont jolies. Lesquelles avez-vous peintes ? (lit. : The paintings on the wall are pretty. Which ones did you paint ?)

• La table sur laquelle est posé le livre (lit. : The table on which the book lies)

• Le chanteur auquel (à lequel) je pense est français (lit. : The singer of which I'm thinking ==> The singer I'm thinking of is french)

• Les fleurs ? Je ne sais pas desquelles (de lesquelles) tu parles (lit. : Flowers ? I don't know which ones you're talking about)

• Les documents auxquels (à lesquels) je fais référence sont sur le bureau (lit. : The documents to which I'm referring ==> The documents I'm referring to are on the desk)

Related Lessons

• Gender of Nouns Names of ships and restaurants
• Easy way of generating the imperfect tense
• Ordinal numbers
• Adjectives modified by adverbs and prepositional phrases
• Relative Clause
• Absolute use of the superlative
• Verbs with personal subject used impersonally
• Non specific use of y
• Mass versus count nouns
• Agreement of the past participle when using “avoir” with a preceding direct object