If you understand the roles nouns (and their accompanying baggage) play in a sentence...... you can use pronouns with ease (words like lui, leur, le/la/les, eux and elles)...... understand complicated grammatical trickery such as past participle agreement...... and write complex sentences using relative pronouns (words like qui and que, lequel, auquel, duquel, dont). As a result, your French will be ACCURATE, ADVENTUROUS and ATTRACT HIGHER MARKS (A A A!).
By now, you should have mastered direct and indirect object noun groups, including how to replace them with pronouns. You should also be confident with the purpose of y and en, and be able to use two object pronouns before a single verb. Now, we are going to begin looking at relative pronouns, which are used to form complex sentences.
In the third slideshow, when we were considering the subject of a verb, we started looking at complex sentences. A complex sentence: links two or more simple sentences together contains more than one conjugated verb
Here are some examples of complex sentences. The more complex sentences you use in your writing, the better your writing becomes. Mastering relative pronouns is one way of raising your game. Le matin, mon mari dormait, le soir en général son énergie revenait. Le suspect s apprêtait à sortir lorsqu éclata une dispute effroyable.
Relative pronouns are one way of joining two simple sentences together. The relative pronouns are: qui, que, lequel, dont and où. In this slideshow, we will just focus on qui and que.
The two simple sentences you are linking will have a shared noun group. The relative pronoun allows you to avoid repeating the noun group. It is a pronoun, and remember that all pronouns replace, or stand in for, a noun or noun group.
Whether you use QUI or QUE in your complex sentence, depends on whether your relative pronoun is the subject or the direct object of the verb that comes after it.
Let s say that we have two simple sentences like these, which we want to combine into one: Cette femme connaît ma sœur. Cette femme parle à ce monsieur. The shared noun group (the one that we want to replace once, to avoid repetition) is cette femme. The sentence we want to end up with looks like this: Cette femme?? parle à ce monsieur connaît ma sœur.
The noun group cette femme is the subject of the verb that comes after my gap. So, the relative pronoun I need to use is QUI. QUI is the subject of its verb (parle); cette femme is the subject of the main verb (connaît). Cette femme?? parle à ce monsieur connaît ma sœur. Cette femme (S) qui (S) parle à ce monsieur connaît ma sœur.
Now let s combine two different two simple sentences: Mon père a acheté un ordinateur. L ordinateur ne fonctionne plus. The shared noun group is l ordinateur. The sentence we want to end up with looks like this: L ordinateur?? mon père a acheté ne fonctionne plus.
L ordinateur?? mon père a acheté ne fonctionne plus. L ordinateur QUE mon père a acheté ne fonctionne plus. The noun group l ordinateur is the direct object of the verb that comes after my gap. So, the relative pronoun I need to use is QUE. QUE is the direct object of its verb (a acheté). The subject of that verb is mon père.
There is a different way we could combine these two sentences. If we do it this way round, l ordinateur is the subject of the verb after the gap. So QUI is the relative pronoun that needs to be used. Mon père a acheté un ordinateur?? ne fonctionne plus. Mon père a acheté un ordinateur QUI ne fonctionne plus.
Link these pairs of sentences together, using QUI or QUE as necessary. PAIR ONE: Le film repasse cette semaine. Le film a enchanté les enfants l année dernière. Le film PAIR TWO Le professeur s assit sans bruit. Les élèves attendaient le professeur. Le professeur
PAIR THREE Le car de touristes venait d Autriche. Le car de touristes est arrivé hier soir. Le car de touristes PAIR FOUR La villa est moderne et luxueuse. La famille Martin possède une villa. La villa
1. Le film QUI repasse cette semaine a enchanté les enfants l année dernière. OR: Le film QUI a enchanté les enfants l année dernière repasse cette semaine.. 2. Le professeur QUE les élèves attendaient s assit sans bruit.
3. Le car de touristes, QUI venait d Autriche, est arrivé hier soir. OR: Le car de touristes, QUI est arrivé hier soir, venait d Autriche 4. La villa que la famille Martin possède est moderne et luxueuse. (or que possède la famille Martin )
You should now be able to understand the purpose of a relative pronoun, and use QUI and QUE with QU onfidence! For those interested in learning more on the topic of complex sentences, there follow another few Aim Higher slides.
There are three types of complex sentence: Juxtaposed Coordinated Subordinated The first two are often called COMPOUND sentences.
In juxtaposed sentences, the two simple sentences are joined together using punctuation. The two sentences are now called two clauses of the same sentence. Le matin, mon mari dormait, le soir en général son énergie revenait. Le capitaine n en croyait pas ses yeux; une torpille se dirigeait vers son navire.
In coordinated sentences, the two clauses are linked by a conjunction (et, mais, or, car, donc). Il est minuit et toute la ville est déserte. Il était malade mais il est venu malgré tout.
In true complex sentences, the two clauses are linked by subordination. One clause (the main clause) can stand on its own as a sentence: Voici le tableau que les Japonais ont acheté pour deux millions de dollars. Je t ai apporté de la documentation sur l Inde afin que tu prépares ton exposé. I have highlighted the main clause in purple.
The other clause (the subordinate clause) wouldn t make sense on its own, so it is the less important partner in the relationship: Voici le tableau que les Japonais ont acheté pour deux millions de dollars. Je t ai apporté de la documentation sur l Inde afin que tu prépares ton exposé. This time, I have highlighted the subordinate clause in purple.