Moving forward in the omission of the article in the complex relative phrases. Let´s take a look at the third aspect: the antecedent.
The antecedent of the relative pronoun affects greatly when we want to omit the definite article in the relative group (or complex relative phrase). There´s been studies where grammarians have observed that if the antecedent is introduced by a definite article, the omission of the article in the relative group is possible without any difficulties in many cases. For example:
- El modo en (el) que escribe me recuerda a su padre
- Me encandiló ese porte con (el) que hace gala siempre que puede
On the other hand, great difficulties are found when the antecedent is preceded by an indefinite article. For example:
- Vimos a una guerrera a la que pedimos que nos protegiera de todo mal
However, if the indefinite noun phrase of the antecedent has an specific interpretation, the omission of the article is also possible:
- Vi una película en (la) que se contaba la historia de William Wallace.
Finally, we are going to observe the last aspect. This might be the most complicated one in order to understand because in this aspect, the role of syntax appears. The fourth aspect is the syntactical structure of the sentence. We must remember that every relative clause has a syntactical function (Direct Object, Indirect Object, Subject, etc.) and this is something that affects when we want to omit the article in the relative phrase.
That being said, we can observe that the omission it is possible when the relative clause has the function of Mandatory Prepositional Phrase (Complemento de Régimen Preposicional in Spanish) as in la manera de (la) que me hablas or Adverbial Phrase as in Me sorprendió el desapego con (el) que María trata a Juan estos días. This does not happen when the relative clause functions as a Noun Object as in la película de la que solo pude ver el prólogo or when it functions as a Direct or Indirect person Object as in el tipo al que se llevaron.
