luckgod.

[pseudo harbor]

Please be patient

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

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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.

[heavy spoke]

'Near to whom'

The boys, near to whom you're sitting down/you're sat, are foreign students

Do you know how relative pronouns work?

This is an indirect object relative pronoun relating to a complex preposition (près de, à côté de, etc)

[stiff cape]

Also, it should be desquels, not duquel because lequel (here combined with de to make duquel) agrees with the noun before the relative pronoun. And "les garçons" is masculine plural.

[heavy spoke]

oh yes I didn't spot that

[ionic gyro]

is the indirect object the "whom" you're sitting down with?

[heavy spoke]

Anyway, the way you'd formulate that is how you'd do any indirect object relative pronouns.
Main clause: Les garçons sont les étudiants étrangers
Subordinate clause: Tu es assis près des garçons
Here we have an indirect structure: preposition (près de) followed by a shared noun (les garçons). First, we replace the object with « lequel », making sure it agrees with the object in gender and number. The gender and number of « les garçons » is masculine and plural so we use « lesquels ». The « lesquels » is like a definite article so it contracts with the preposition « de » to make « desquels ». We combine that with the rest of the preposition structure to get « près desquels ».
Once we have that, we move the whole thing next to the object it replaces in the main clause – « les garçons » in this case – and then put in the rest of the sentence.
« Les garçons, près desquels tu es assis, sont les étudiants étrangers ».

[heavy spoke]

Yes though it's a bit more complicated than that

English 'that/which, who/whom' depends on animacy, whether the object you are replacing is alive or not, whereas French « lequel » works with any noun

For example, I can say:
« Les fraises à côté desquelles je suis assis sont délicieuses ».
« lesquelles » there is referencing a dead object, « les fraises (the strawberries) ».
'The strawberries next to which I am sitting are delicious.'

[ionic gyro]

why do we use the lesquelles form if there's the possibility of sitting next to one of the object, something like «les fraises à côté de laquelle je suis assis sont délicieuses»

[stiff cape]

That said, you can also say "près de qui" for people (not for objects).

[heavy spoke]

Because the object you are replacing is « les fraises »

not « la fraise »

Also, unless this one strawberry is like waaaay out from the rest of the pile, you're also sitting next to the others

In that case, you might as well just use the singular:
« La fraise à côté de laquelle je suis assis est délicieuse »

[ionic gyro]

using the singular form for simplicity, does this imply that there is two strawberries, the one you sit next to and the one that is delicious

[heavy spoke]

no

They're the same object

[ionic gyro]

so «de laquelle» is meant to replace la fraise, but if it does that why does «la fraise» still exist in the final sentence

[heavy spoke]

Because it's part of the main clause. What you're replacing is just the subordinate clause.

Okay, before I speak anymore, do you know how relative pronouns work?

[ionic gyro]

the qui que ones yeah

lequel is the one that is difficult for me to understand

[heavy spoke]

Wait

@ionic gyro Read that

@grim orchid Bonjour, merci de répondre aux questions dans les fils qui ont été créés en-dessous !

[ionic gyro]

i think i understand it now

its confusing because it's also an interrogative pronoun

[heavy spoke]

There's a lot of crossover in terms of pronouns so yes I understand

Anyway, the point is that the object you're replacing in the subordinate is the same as whatever object is in the main

If you want to have a sort of partitive where you're sitting next to a bunch of strawberries that aren't delicious but one is, you can use that structure

« L'une des fraises près desquelles je suis assis est délicieuse »