del qual (relatiu possessiu)

Possessive Relative Del Qual

Level 4

Del qual and its inflected forms express a possessive relation inside a relative clause.

How It Works

Catalan often renders English whose with a noun followed by del qual: una autora els llibres de la qual admiro. La qual agrees with autora, the possessor; els llibres agrees independently as the thing possessed.

The possessed noun belongs inside the relative clause, so its article and syntactic function must fit that clause. In el poble les cases del qual són blanques, les cases is the relative subject and del qual points back to el poble.

This is a formal, potentially heavy construction. When it becomes difficult to read, divide the information into two sentences rather than omitting required articles or inventing an indeclinable equivalent of whose. Do not choose qual's gender from the possessed noun.

Examples (3)

  1. És una autora els llibres de la qual admiro.

    She is an author whose books I admire.

  2. Visitem el poble les cases del qual són blanques.

    We visit the village whose houses are white.

  3. Són empreses els productes de les quals exportem.

    They are companies whose products we export.

Common Mistakes

  • Choosing qual from the possessed noun instead of its possessor.

    És una autora els llibres del qual admiro.
    És una autora els llibres de la qual admiro.

    The possessor autora is feminine singular, so the relative is de la qual; llibres has its own masculine plural agreement.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

del qual (relatiu possessiu)Level 4Possessive Relative Del Qual

Learn This First

Agree qual with its antecedent before adding complex prepositions or possession. Identify a possessive relationship before encoding it in a relative clause.

Words in This Pattern

qual