monkeymirrormagic

[late axle]

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[vocal birch]

As in que/qui or ce que/ce qui ?

[vocal birch]

Oh, « qui/que/où/dont » vs « auquel/sur lequel »

qui/que/où are different enough from the rest so I'm going to focus on « dont vs auquel/sur lequel » because these relate to prepositions which is a lot better conceptually IMO. Okay, quick primer on relative pronouns, they replace a noun in a subordinate clause that can be found in the main clause as to avoid repetition. An example would be « que » which is the object relative pronoun and so it replaces, well, objects. « La voiture est verte + Je veux la voiture -> La voiture que je veux est verte » where the relative pronoun represents the direct object « la voiture » in the subordinate clause.

« dont, auquel, sur lequel, etc » function similar to « que » except for a key distinction: where « que » works for direct objects, « dont, auquel, sur lequel » work for indirect objects. Indirect objects are essentially objects that have a preposition before them so « à elle, pour la république, sur la chaise, etc ». The general rule is that for indirect objects, you move both preposition and object to the front, like que, but you replace the object with « lequel ».

Let's take this example:
(1) Le garçon est mon voisin.
(2) Tu parlais au garçon.

If we combine these two clauses into one sentence with (2) as the subordinate clause, we put both the preposition and object in front, getting something like « Le garcon [au garçon tu parlais] est mon voisin ». Now, we replace the object and its associated article with « lequel », agreeing to the object. « garçon » is singular and masculine, so we use « lequel ». Since the « le » in « lequel » is an article, we elide the whole thing which gets us:
« Le garçon auquel tu parlais est mon voisin. »

What happens if I change « le garçon » to « les filles » ? Same thing, but since the object is now feminine and plural, we use « lesquelles » instead. This gives us:
« Les filles auxquelles tu parlais sont mes voisines. »

This is the general rule so if I change the preposition – which depends on the verb – the same structure applies. Examples:
(1) La chaise sur laquelle tu t'assois est à moi.
(2) Le gouvernement pour lequel tu te bats tombera.
(3) Les devoirs avec lesquels tu as des difficultés sont faciles, en fait.