It is something that even the French themselves occasionally get wrong: saying ‘que’ when it should be ‘dont’. Are you already scratching your head? There is no need. The rules are actually quite manageable.
The words ‘dont’, ‘qui’, ‘que’, ‘ce qui’, and ‘ce que’ are relative pronouns. In English, these correspond to ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘that’, or ‘what’.
Qui or que
If the relative pronoun is the subject, you always use ‘qui’.
- La fille qui est à côté de moi. (The girl who is standing next to me.) >> The subject is ‘la fille’, so you refer to it using ‘qui’.
If you are referring to a direct object, you use ‘que’.
- Le livre que tu me donnes. (The book that you are giving me.) >> The subject is ‘tu’, the direct object is ‘le livre’, so you refer to it using ‘que’.
Dont
The word ‘dont’ replaces a noun (thing or person) following the preposition ‘de’.
- Le travail dont il était fier. (The work he was proud of.)
- Le film dont je parle. (The film I am talking about.)
Ce qui/que/dont
If you can replace a pronoun with ‘la chose qui’ (the thing that), ‘la chose que’, or ‘la chose dont’, you replace it with ‘ce qui’, ‘ce que’, or ‘ce dont’.
- Elle comprend ce qui se passe. (She understands (the thing) what happened.) > subject
- Je comprends ce que vous voulez. (I understand (the thing) what you want.) > direct object
You use ‘ce dont’ when it is the object of the preposition ‘de’.
- Il écoute ce dont je parle. (He listens to (the thing) what I said.)
- Ce dont il a peur, ce sont les rats. (What he is afraid of are rats.)
After a preposition
When using a relative pronoun after a preposition, pay attention to what you are referring to: a person or a non-person?
Person
If you are referring to a person, use ‘qui’.
- L’ami avec qui je danse. (The friend with whom I am dancing.)
- L’enfant à qui tu as donné ce livre. (The child to whom you gave that book.)
Non-person
If you are not referring to a person, use ‘lequel’ (masculine singular), ‘laquelle’ (feminine singular), ‘lesquels’ (masculine plural), or ‘lesquelles’ (feminine plural).
Note: If the preposition is ‘à’, you use ‘auquel’, ‘auxquels’, or ‘auxquelles’.
If the preposition is ‘de’, you use ‘duquel’, ‘desquels’, ‘de laquelle’, or ‘desquelles’.
- Un pays pour lequel je dois obtenir un visa. (A country for which I must obtain a visa.)
- La ville dans laquelle vous résidez. (The city in which you reside.)
- Les questions auxquelles nous devons répondre. (The questions to which we must respond.)
- La photo de laquelle le tableau est inspiré. (The photo on which the painting is based).
