The Relative Clauses. Types and Troubles

After finishing for now the topic related to articles, I would like to draw attention to another topic: Relative Clauses (also known in Spanish as "Adjective Clauses"). In the Spanish language, the relative clauses are the ones whose head is a relative word (adverb, pronoun or determiner) or a relative phrase. The most usual relative pronoun in Spanish is "que".

- La magia que utilizó me dejó perplejo

The relative pronoun has usually an antecedent which can be expressed or implied.

- La persona que me diga algo sobre Juan la abofoteo (on this example, the relative pronoun "que" has an expressed antecedent because we can see it in the sentence: "persona").

- Quien me diga algo sobre Juan la abofeteo (on this other example, although we cannot see an antecedent for the relative pronoun "Quien", we understand it refers to a person and that is why it is called implied).

Also, the relative sentences are divided into two types: restrictive and explanatory. The restrictive ones specify something about the antecedent and act as a modifier of this one syntactically speaking. On the other hand, the explanatory ones add some extra information about the antecedent, act as an adjunct syntactically speaking and they are written between commas. For example:

- Los libros que me costaron un montón son muy interesantes
- Los libros, que me costaron un montón, son muy interesantes

The first sentence is a restrictive relative clause and points out that ONLY the books that were overpriced are very interesting (I have other books, but only the overpriced ones are interesting). But on the second example, we have an explanatory relative clause and states that ALL the books are interesting (we may be talking about the books I have or some collection) and ALSO overpriced (extra information).

Knowing the difference between these two types of relative clauses in Spanish is key to understand a very common mistake many students of Spanish as a foreign language make.

As we said before, the most usual relative pronoun in Spanish is "que" but we may also use "quien" in certain contexts. As well as in the English language, "quien" is used when the antecedent refers to a person but, on the contrary of English, in Spanish there is a strict rule about this: It cannot be used in restrictive relative clauses. For example:

- El amigo de Juan quien dejó la escuela a los 8 años es carpintero ahora (INCORRECT)

On this example, we are using a restrictive relative clause because we are referring to a specific friend of Juan. And even though the antecedent of "quien" would be a person (amigo), it is not correct to use it in the Spanish language. Therefore, we must use "que" instead:

- El amigo de Juan que dejó la escuela a los 8 años es carpintero ahora (CORRECT)

The relative pronoun "quien" can only be used in the explanatory relative clauses and in the relative clauses with incorporated antecedent.

- Los estudiantes, quienes llegaron tarde, no pudieron entrar a clase (explanatory) // Quienes lleguen tarde mañana recibirán una amonestación severa (relative clause with implied antecedent).

However it is still possible to find "quien" in a restrictive relative clause but under a special condition: it must be accompanied by a preposition. For example:

- Los chicos de quienes te hablé son bastante majos. (restrictive relative clause)

In conclusion, the students of Spanish as a foreign language must be careful when they choose "quien" as relative pronoun. They must pay attention to the type of relative clause they are going to express and use "quien" in the explanatory relative clauses or in the relative clauses with implied antecedent. If they wish to use it in the restrictive ones, they have to make sure the verb inside the relative clauses goes along with a preposition that can be put beside the relative pronoun "quien".