What are the French relative pronouns?

Qui, que, où, dont and the lequel family, plus the ce qui and ce que constructions when there is no antecedent. Qui fills a subject gap, que an object gap, dont a gap governed by de, où a place or a time, and lequel a gap governed by any other preposition: la boîte dans laquelle j'ai mis les clés.

Can you leave out the relative pronoun in French like in English?

No. The film I saw is le film que j'ai vu, with que present. Dropping it produces a sentence French speakers cannot parse, and this is one of the most frequent English-speaker errors in written French.

When do I need dont instead of que?

When the verb or noun inside the clause is built with de. Parler de gives le livre dont je parle, avoir besoin de gives l'outil dont j'ai besoin, and a possessive de gives une femme dont le mari est médecin. If no de is involved, que is the form you want.

Why does the past participle change after que?

Because que places the direct object before the verb, and a preceding direct object makes the participle agree. So les clés que j'ai perdues takes perdues, feminine plural, while j'ai perdu les clés leaves the participle bare.

French grammar · Intermediate

French Relative Pronouns: Qui, Que, Où, Dont and Lequel

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

French relative pronouns — qui, que, où, dont and lequel — attach a describing clause to the noun it describes. Which one you need depends on the job the pronoun does inside its own clause, not on whether the noun is a person or a thing. Unlike English, French never lets you drop the pronoun.

La femme qui habite en face travaille à l'hôpital.

The woman who lives across the street works at the hospital.

What it is

A relative pronoun lets you glue a second clause onto a noun instead of starting a new sentence. J'ai un ami. Il habite à Nice becomes j'ai un ami qui habite à Nice. The noun you attach the clause to is called the antecedent, and the pronoun you choose is decided entirely by the grammatical hole it fills in the clause that follows.

Le livre que tu m'as prêté est sur la table. — The book you lent me is on the table.

How to spot it

Cover the antecedent and read the relative clause on its own. If it is missing a subject, you need qui. If it is missing a direct object, you need que. If it is missing de, you need dont; if it is missing a place or a moment, où; if it is missing any other preposition, lequel.

l'homme qui chante — the man who is singing (no subject in the clause)
l'homme que j'entends — the man I can hear (no object in the clause)
le film dont on parle — the film people are talking about (parler de)
le café où on s'est vus — the café where we met (a place)

Gender and number play no part in this choice. Qui and que serve people and things, masculine and feminine, singular and plural alike. Only lequel changes shape.

Relative Pronouns Quick Reference

Choosing a relative pronoun by the gap it fills

Pronoun	Fills the gap of	Example
qui	the subject	la fille qui rit — the girl who is laughing
que	the direct object	la fille que je vois — the girl I see
où	a place or a time	l'année où il est né — the year he was born
dont	a phrase with de	le sujet dont il rêve — the subject he dreams of
à qui	à + a person	l'ami à qui j'écris — the friend I'm writing to
lequel	another preposition + a thing	la chaise sur laquelle il est assis — the chair he's sitting on
ce qui / ce que	no antecedent at all	ce que je veux — what I want

Common Relative Pronouns Examples in French

Each relative pronoun doing the job it was built for:

Qui — the Missing Subject

Le train qui arrive vient de Lyon.: The train that's arriving comes from Lyon.
J'ai des voisins qui font du bruit.: I have neighbours who make noise.
C'est une histoire qui finit mal.: It's a story that ends badly.
Les gens qui attendent sont patients.: The people who are waiting are patient.

Qui is followed straight by a verb, because the subject slot is exactly what it is filling.

Que — the Missing Object

Le gâteau que ma mère a fait était délicieux.: The cake my mother made was delicious.
Regarde les photos que j'ai prises hier.: Look at the photos I took yesterday.
L'histoire qu'il raconte est vraie.: The story he's telling is true.
Les amis que nous avons invités arrivent à huit heures.: The friends we invited are arriving at eight.

Que is followed by a subject, because the clause already has one. Before a vowel it becomes qu'.

Où and Dont

Le village où j'ai grandi est minuscule.: The village where I grew up is tiny.
Je me souviens du jour où tu es arrivée.: I remember the day you arrived.
L'écrivain dont je t'ai parlé publie un roman.: The writer I told you about is publishing a novel.
Une maison dont les fenêtres sont cassées.: A house whose windows are broken.

Dont covers both of about which and whose, because both hide a de underneath: parler de, les fenêtres de la maison.

After a Preposition

La collègue avec qui je travaille est belge.: The colleague I work with is Belgian.
Le tiroir dans lequel j'ai rangé les clés.: The drawer I put the keys in.
Les questions auxquelles il faut répondre.: The questions that have to be answered.
Le pont sous lequel passe la rivière.: The bridge the river flows under.

People take qui after a preposition, things take a form of lequel. French keeps the preposition at the front of the clause, never at the end.

How French Relative Clauses Work

Four structural habits explain nearly every relative clause you will ever need to build or decode.

The Clause Decides, Not the Noun

English speakers instinctively reach for who with people and which with things. French ignores that distinction and asks a different question: what is missing from the clause? La femme qui parle and le moteur qui fait du bruit use the same pronoun because in both the subject is what is missing.

Le chien qui aboie appartient au voisin.

The dog that's barking belongs to the neighbour.

Missing subject → qui, whoever or whatever it is.

The Pronoun Is Never Optional

English happily says the book I read, with nothing between book and I. French has no such option: the relative pronoun holds the two clauses together and has to be there. Le livre je lis is not a sentence.

La chanson que tu as chantée m'a plu.

The song you sang was lovely.

If English can drop it, French still needs que.

Qui Passes the Person of the Antecedent to the Verb

Because qui is standing in for the subject, the verb after it agrees with whatever qui refers to, including in the first and second person. That is why c'est moi qui ai raison uses ai and not a.

C'est vous qui avez décidé, pas moi.

You're the ones who decided, not me.

moi qui ai, toi qui as, nous qui avons.

Que Triggers Past Participle Agreement

In a compound tense, que puts the direct object in front of the verb, which is exactly the condition for agreement. The participle then matches the antecedent in gender and number: les photos que j'ai prises, la lettre qu'elle a écrite.

Les lettres que j'ai reçues sont sur le bureau.

The letters I received are on the desk.

que + avoir → the participle agrees.

Prepositions Stay at the Front

English strands prepositions at the end of the clause: the friend I went with. French moves the preposition to the front, immediately before qui or lequel, and there is no version where it trails behind.

L'ami avec qui je suis parti habite à Genève.

The friend I left with lives in Geneva.

avec qui, dans lequel, sur laquelle — preposition first.

Common Mistakes with Relative Pronouns

Incorrect: L'homme que parle est mon oncle. — The man who is speaking is my uncle.

Correct: L'homme qui parle est mon oncle. — The man who is speaking is my uncle.

The clause parle has no subject, so the gap is a subject and the pronoun must be qui. A quick test: que is always followed by a subject, qui by a verb.

Incorrect: Le livre je lis est passionnant. — The book I'm reading is fascinating.

Correct: Le livre que je lis est passionnant. — The book I'm reading is fascinating.

English lets you omit that or which when it is the object. French never does, so the que has to be restored.

Incorrect: Je me souviens du jour quand tu es partie. — I remember the day you left.

Correct: Je me souviens du jour où tu es partie. — I remember the day you left.

After a noun expressing time, the relative pronoun is où, not quand. Quand introduces a time clause of its own but cannot follow an antecedent.

Incorrect: C'est moi qui a raison. — I'm the one who's right.

Correct: C'est moi qui ai raison. — I'm the one who's right.

Qui inherits the person of its antecedent, so with moi the verb goes into the first person singular. The same logic gives c'est nous qui avons and c'est toi qui as.

Relative Clauses Without a Noun in Front

Some relative clauses point back at an idea rather than a noun, and a few take an unexpected mood.

Ce qui, ce que, ce dont

When there is no noun to hang the clause on, French adds ce as a placeholder antecedent. Ce qui and ce que translate as what, and ce dont covers verbs built with de.

Ce qui m'inquiète, c'est le prix.: What worries me is the price.
Je ne comprends pas ce que tu veux.: I don't understand what you want.
Voilà ce dont j'ai besoin.: That's what I need.

The same ce also summarises a whole preceding clause: il est arrivé en retard, ce qui m'a agacé.

Où for time as well as place

Où covers moments as naturally as locations. English uses when there, which is why learners reach for quand, but a relative clause attached to a noun of time takes où.

le jour où nous nous sommes rencontrés: the day we met
à l'époque où il vivait à Paris: back when he was living in Paris
au moment où le téléphone a sonné: just as the phone rang

Quand introduces a clause of time on its own; où is what you use after a noun like jour, année, moment.

The subjunctive after a superlative

When the antecedent is a superlative or an absolute like le seul, le premier, or rien, the relative clause often shifts into the subjunctive, because the claim is a judgement rather than a fact.

C'est le meilleur film que j'aie vu.: It's the best film I've seen.
Il n'y a personne qui sache la réponse.: There's nobody who knows the answer.
C'est la seule chose qui compte.: It's the only thing that matters.

Qui compte stays in the indicative here because compte and the subjunctive form are identical, which is part of why the rule feels invisible.

Relative Pronouns FAQs

What are the French relative pronouns?: Qui, que, où, dont and the lequel family, plus the ce qui and ce que constructions when there is no antecedent. Qui fills a subject gap, que an object gap, dont a gap governed by de, où a place or a time, and lequel a gap governed by any other preposition: la boîte dans laquelle j'ai mis les clés.
How do I know whether to use qui or que?: Look at what follows. Qui is followed by a verb because it is the subject of that verb: la voiture qui roule. Que is followed by a subject because the clause already has one: la voiture que je conduis. Whether the antecedent is a person or an object makes no difference.
Can you leave out the relative pronoun in French like in English?: No. The film I saw is le film que j'ai vu, with que present. Dropping it produces a sentence French speakers cannot parse, and this is one of the most frequent English-speaker errors in written French.
When do I need dont instead of que?: When the verb or noun inside the clause is built with de. Parler de gives le livre dont je parle, avoir besoin de gives l'outil dont j'ai besoin, and a possessive de gives une femme dont le mari est médecin. If no de is involved, que is the form you want.
Why does the past participle change after que?: Because que places the direct object before the verb, and a preceding direct object makes the participle agree. So les clés que j'ai perdues takes perdues, feminine plural, while j'ai perdu les clés leaves the participle bare.