Preposition + qui/què

Qui and Què After Prepositions

Level 5

After a preposition, qui refers to people and accented què to things.

How It Works

El tema de què parlem contains de because parlar governs de. El projecte en què participem contains en because participar takes en. Què bears an accent in these prepositional relative uses and does not vary with the antecedent.

Compare human and nonhuman antecedents without changing the governing relation: la persona amb qui col·laboro and el projecte en què participo. A longer agreeing form can replace either when suitable, but qui and què remain invariant. The accent on què distinguishes it from unstressed que, not from a hypothetical plural. Choose the preposition by reconstructing the embedded phrase before replacing it with a relative.

Examples (3)

  1. És la persona amb qui col·laboro.

    It is the person I collaborate with.

  2. Aquest és el projecte en què participo.

    This is the project I participate in.

  3. No entenc el motiu per què ho rebutgen.

    I do not understand the reason why they reject it.

How It Connects

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Preposition + qui/quèLevel 5Qui and Què After Prepositions

Learn This First

Keep the preposition licensed by the relative’s embedded function. Build a personal free or prepositional relative with qui.

Words in This Pattern

qui