willoww89

[fallow glen]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[alpine shale]

you will get more than this for sure, but just for starters >

another useful tip >

[devout wave]

Which ones are you talking about?
If it's the interrogative pronouns, then qui is for persons and que for objects, things.

Qui est allé à la fête ? => Who went to the party?
Que fais-tu ? => What are you doing?
If it's the relative pronouns then their grammatical role in relation to the relative clause will determine them: qui notes the subject whereas que marks the direct object.
La fille qui est allée au cinéma est ma voisine => The girl who went to the theater is my neighbor.
Le livre qui est sur la table est écrit par Proust => The book which is on the table is written by Proust.
As you can see, both la fille and le livre are the subjects of the relative clauses (respectively est allée au cinéma and est sur la table) since you would say "la fille est allée au cinéma" and "le livre est sur la table" as the basic sentences.
La fille que j'ai rencontrée hier se trouve être ma voisine => The girl whom I met yesterday turns out to be my neighbor.
Le livre que j'ai lu récemment est écrit par Voltaire => The book that I recently read is written by Voltaire.
Here, la fille and le livre are the direct objects of the relative clauses (respectively j'ai rencontrée hier and j'ai lu récemment) since you would say "j'ai rencontré la fille hier" and "j'ai récemment lu le livre" as the basic sentences.
As you can see here, animacy and inanimacy have nothing to do with determining the relative pronoun unlike the interrogative ones.

While que is normally followed by a subject inside a relative clause, there can be inversion in formal texts/speech.
So you can have both "le livre que Voltaire a écrit" and "le livre qu'a écrit Voltaire".
Inversion still doesn't change the fact that "le livre" is the direct object of the relative clause.
Oh, by the way, this kind of inversion can't be done with subject personal pronouns.

[alpine shale]

good info, namelessone.

this is from an authentic source '

[alpine shale]

this matches what namelessone was explaining

someones else wrote this hack >

take a look > there's a verb after so it takes qui:

[novel umbra]

Thank you so very much this is super helpful!!