Relative Pronouns *qui* and *que* in French

In Brief

Use qui when the word being replaced is the subject of the relative clause—the person or thing doing the action: la femme qui parle (“the woman who is speaking”). Use que when it is the direct object—the person or thing directly affected by the action: la femme que je connais (“the woman I know”). Before a vowel sound, que becomes qu', but qui never shortens.

Overview

A relative clause is a part of a sentence that identifies or describes a noun: “the neighbor who called” or “the meal that we ordered.” The linking word is a relative pronoun. At A2, the two essential French relative pronouns are qui and que. They let you combine short statements and avoid repeating the same person or thing.

For example, L'homme parle. L'homme est mon père. can become L'homme qui parle est mon père. In the combined sentence, qui stands for l'homme inside the clause qui parle. Likewise, Je lis un livre. Le livre est bon. becomes Le livre que je lis est bon. Here que stands for le livre inside que je lis.

English translations alone cannot tell you which French form to choose. English “who,” “which,” and “that” overlap, and English often omits an object relative pronoun: “the book I bought.” French chooses according to the pronoun's grammatical job and normally requires it: le livre que j'ai acheté.

How It Works

The beginner rule

A subject is the person or thing that performs the verb. A direct object is the person or thing the verb acts on directly, without a preposition such as à or de.

Form	Job inside the relative clause	Basic pattern	Possible English rendering
qui	subject	noun + qui + verb	who, which, that
que / qu'	direct object	noun + que/qu' + subject + verb	whom, which, that, or no visible word

The choice does not depend on whether the noun is a person or a thing:

• la collègue qui arrive — the colleague who is arriving
• le train qui arrive — the train that is arriving
• la collègue que Marc appelle — the colleague Marc is calling
• le train que Marc prend — the train Marc is taking

Building a clause with qui

Start with two sentences:

• La fille chante. — The girl is singing.
• La fille est ma sœur. — The girl is my sister.

In the first sentence, la fille performs chante, so it is the subject. Replace that repeated subject with qui:

• La fille qui chante est ma sœur. — The girl who is singing is my sister.

The verb follows qui directly. Its form still agrees with the noun that qui represents:

• C'est moi qui prépare le dîner. — I'm the one preparing dinner.
• Ce sont mes voisins qui préparent la fête. — My neighbors are the ones organizing the party.

Do not insert another subject pronoun after qui. The qui is already the subject of its clause.

Building a clause with que

Now start with:

• Je lis le livre. — I am reading the book.
• Le livre est intéressant. — The book is interesting.

Inside Je lis le livre, je performs the action and le livre receives it. The book is therefore the direct object. Replace the repeated object with que:

• Le livre que je lis est intéressant. — The book I am reading is interesting.

After que, you will normally see a separate subject and then its verb: que je lis, que Marie préfère, que nous avons choisi. That visual pattern is a useful shortcut, but the grammatical job is the real rule.

Que becomes qu' before a vowel sound

Que loses its final e before a vowel or silent h. This is elision, the joining of two words with an apostrophe:

• le film qu'il a vu — the film he saw
• la chanson qu'Ana écoute — the song Ana is listening to
• le message qu'on attend — the message we are waiting for

Qui never elides: write la personne qui arrive, never qu'arrive when you mean “who is arriving.”

A reliable two-sentence test

When you hesitate, restore the relative clause as a complete sentence.

1. la robe ___ est rouge → La robe est rouge. The robe is the subject of est → qui: la robe qui est rouge.
2. la robe ___ tu portes → Tu portes la robe. The robe is the direct object of portes → que: la robe que tu portes.

Another quick test is to look immediately after the blank:

• blank + verb often points to qui: le chien ___ dort → qui dort
• blank + subject + verb often points to que: le chien ___ nous cherchons → que nous cherchons

Treat this as a helpful check, not a substitute for identifying who does what.

The noun before the relative pronoun

The noun or noun phrase being described is called the antecedent—in plain terms, the word that qui or que points back to. It can be a person, animal, object, or idea, singular or plural:

• les clients qui attendent — the customers who are waiting
• les clés que j'ai perdues — the keys I lost
• une décision qui change tout — a decision that changes everything
• l'idée que tu proposes — the idea you are suggesting

Neither qui nor que changes for gender or number. The surrounding verb or past participle may change, but the relative pronoun itself stays the same.

Examples in Context

French	English	Note
L'homme qui parle est mon père.	The man who is speaking is my father.	Qui is the subject of parle.
La fille qui chante est belle.	The girl who is singing is beautiful.	A person as subject.
Le bus qui arrive va au centre-ville.	The bus that is arriving goes downtown.	A thing can also be represented by qui.
J'aime les cafés qui ferment tard.	I like cafés that close late.	The plural antecedent controls ferment.
Le livre que je lis est bon.	The book I'm reading is good.	Que is the object of lis.
Tu connais la femme que Paul attend ?	Do you know the woman Paul is waiting for?	Paul is the subject; the woman is the object.
Voici le gâteau que nous avons préparé.	Here is the cake we made.	English omits “that”; French keeps que.
Le film qu'il a vu dure deux heures.	The film he saw lasts two hours.	Que elides before il.
C'est une histoire qu'on raconte souvent.	It's a story people often tell.	Qu' before on.
Je cherche un appartement qui a un balcon.	I'm looking for an apartment that has a balcony.	The apartment is the subject of a.
L'appartement que nous visitons a un balcon.	The apartment we are viewing has a balcony.	The apartment is the object of visitons.
Les photos que Léa a prises sont magnifiques.	The photos Léa took are beautiful.	Advanced: prises agrees with the preceding object.

Common Mistakes

Choosing by “person” versus “thing”

• Wrong: Le livre que est sur la table est à moi.
• Right: Le livre qui est sur la table est à moi.
• Why: A thing can take qui. The book is the subject of est; person versus thing is irrelevant.

Adding a second subject after qui

• Wrong: La femme qui elle travaille ici est médecin.
• Right: La femme qui travaille ici est médecin.
• Why: Qui already serves as the subject of travaille. Do not repeat it with elle.

Omitting que as English can omit “that”

• Wrong: Le restaurant nous aimons est fermé.
• Right: Le restaurant que nous aimons est fermé.
• Why: “The restaurant we like” is natural English, but standard French needs the object relative pronoun.

Forgetting elision

• Wrong: Le film que il regarde est drôle.
• Right: Le film qu'il regarde est drôle.
• Why: Que becomes qu' before a vowel sound or silent h.

Shortening qui before a vowel

• Wrong: La personne qu'arrive est ma responsable.
• Right: La personne qui arrive est ma responsable.
• Why: Qui never becomes qu'. Only que elides in this pair.

Using que after a preposition

• Wrong: La collègue avec que je travaille est belge.
• Right: La collègue avec qui je travaille est belge.
• Why: Here the verb construction includes the preposition avec. This is not a direct-object use of que; with a person after a preposition, French commonly uses qui.

Usage Notes

French keeps the relative pronoun

In informal English, an object relative pronoun often disappears: “the person I called,” “the shoes we bought.” French normally retains que/qu' in both careful and everyday speech: la personne que j'ai appelée, *les chaussures **qu'*on a achetées. Leaving it out is not a normal conversational shortcut.

Qui does not always translate as “who”

Use qui for any subject, including things: une application qui fonctionne bien (“an app that works well”). Conversely, que can refer to a person: l'actrice que nous avons rencontrée (“the actress we met”). Translate the whole clause naturally instead of assigning one fixed English word to each French form.

Pronunciation helps, but spelling still matters

In connected speech, que is frequently reduced, and qu' attaches closely to the following word. In writing, however, the distinction remains clear: que tu, qu'il, but always qui arrive. Reading examples aloud can help you learn these as chunks.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of the points below at A2, but they explain forms you will soon encounter.

Past-participle agreement after que

With a compound tense formed with avoir, a past participle (a verb form such as vu, fait, or écrit used to build the past) normally agrees with a direct object when that object comes before it. Because que places the represented object before the participle, agreement may become visible:

• la lettre que j'ai écrite — the letter I wrote
• les lettres que j'ai écrites — the letters I wrote
• les acteurs que nous avons vus — the actors we saw

The ending may be silent in speech, but it matters in writing. This rule concerns que as a direct object; qui, as a subject, does not trigger this particular avoir agreement rule.

Ce qui and ce que: “what” without a named antecedent

When there is no noun before the relative clause, French often uses ce qui or ce que:

• Je ne comprends pas ce qui se passe. — I don't understand what is happening.
• Dis-moi ce que tu veux. — Tell me what you want.

The same subject/object distinction applies. In ce qui se passe, the unknown thing is the subject of se passe. In ce que tu veux, tu is the subject and the unknown thing is the object of veux.

Relative pronouns after prepositions

The simple rule “qui = subject” has an important extension: after a preposition, qui can refer to a person even though it is not the subject:

• la personne avec qui je voyage — the person I am traveling with
• l'ami à qui j'écris — the friend I am writing to

For things after prepositions, French often uses forms of lequel: la chaise sur laquelle je pose mon sac. These belong to a later stage of relative-pronoun study.

Know when the answer is où or dont

Not every gap is filled by qui or que. Où introduces a place or time: la ville où j'habite (“the city where I live”). Dont replaces a complement introduced by de: le livre dont je parle (“the book I'm talking about”). A useful warning is that que replaces a direct object only; it does not erase a required à, de, or other preposition.

Practice Tips

1. Use the two-sentence test. Take a pair such as Je regarde le film. Le film commence à huit heures. Combine it twice if possible: le film que je regarde and le film qui commence à huit heures. This forces you to identify the noun's role rather than guess from the translation.
2. Mark the actor. In each relative clause, underline the person or thing performing the verb. If the missing noun is that actor, choose qui; if another subject performs the action on it, choose que.
3. Learn contrasting pairs aloud. Repeat pairs such as la voisine qui m'appelle / la voisine que j'appelle and le train qui arrive / le train que je prends. Add examples with qu' so elision becomes automatic.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subject Pronouns — helps you recognize the subject that follows que and understand why qui replaces a subject.
• Next step: Relative Pronouns: où, dont — extends relative clauses to places, times, and complements introduced by de.