Joining two sentences into one: el chico que vive arriba, el bar donde quedamos
Can link ideas with relative clauses and define words they do not know
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La señora que vende los boquerones en el mercado es la madre de Paco.
The woman who sells anchovies at the market is Paco's mother.
Volvimos al chiringuito donde cenamos el año pasado, pero lo habían reformado.
We went back to the beach bar where we had dinner last year, but they'd renovated it.
¿Cómo se llama eso que se usa para colar el café? —¿El filtro?
What do you call the thing you use to filter coffee? — The filter?
Зверніть увагу на виділені частини. Що у них спільного?
Relative clauses are what take you from short, choppy sentences to Spanish that flows. They describe something without starting a new sentence: "the guy who lives upstairs", "the bar where we met".
| Relative | Refers to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| que | people and things (by far the most common) | El chico que vive arriba toca la batería. - The guy who lives upstairs plays the drums. |
| donde | places | Ese es el bar donde quedamos. - That's the bar where we met. |
| quien / quienes | people, after a preposition or a comma | La vecina con quien hablé es gallega. - The neighbour I spoke to is from Galicia. |
| el que / la que / los que / las que | people and things, after a preposition | El piso en el que vivo es de alquiler. - The flat I live in is rented. |
| cuyo / cuya | whose (formal) | Un señor cuyo nombre no recuerdo. - A man whose name I don't remember. |
English chooses between "who", "which" and "that"; Spanish uses que for all of them in ordinary clauses: el chico que..., el libro que..., la ciudad que.... Do not reach for quien as a translation of "who": *El chico quien vive arriba is wrong.
English can leave it out: "the book I bought", "the people we met". Spanish cannot: el libro que compré, la gente que conocimos. And relative que has no accent; qué with an accent is the question word.
English often leaves the preposition at the end: "the girl I spoke to", "the flat I live in". Spanish moves it to the front, before the relative, and adds an article: la chica con la que hablé (or con quien hablé), el piso en el que vivo. The article agrees with the noun: la empresa para la que trabajo, los amigos con los que viajé.
English works the same way, so trust your instinct here.
When a word escapes you, describe it with a relative clause: forgot sacacorchos? Say esa cosa que sirve para abrir las botellas de vino - "that thing you use to open wine bottles" - and everyone will understand. The DELE A2 speaking test rewards exactly this.
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Вправи для практикиLa señora que vende los boquerones en el mercado es la madre de Paco.
The woman who sells anchovies at the market is Paco's mother.
Specifying clause, so no comma: it tells you which woman. Note that Spanish uses 'que' for people as well as things.
Volvimos al chiringuito donde cenamos el año pasado, pero lo habían reformado.
We went back to the beach bar where we had dinner last year, but they'd renovated it.
'Donde' replaces 'en el que' for places and is much more natural in speech.
¿Cómo se llama eso que se usa para colar el café? —¿El filtro?
What do you call the thing you use to filter coffee? — The filter?
The survival strategy: define what you cannot name. English would allow 'the thing you use'; Spanish needs the 'que'.
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