Spanish: An Essential Grammar

El que, lo que, quien

In this usage, these are best understood as meaning ‘the one who/that’ or

‘those who/that’.

Pronouns in the el queseries refer to humans or non-humans, while

quien/quienescan only refer to persons:

Son ellos quienes/los que no quieren pagar.

It’s they who don’t want to pay.

Es la tuya la que se ha perdido.

It’s yours that has been lost.

Lo queis used in this construction with reference to a previously unidenti-

fied item:

Es el garaje lo que han pintado.

It’s the garage (that) they’ve painted/What they’ve painted is the

garage.

Notes:

1 Sequences such as ×Fue Juan que lo hizo×are considered ungrammatical in

Peninsular Spanish.

2 If the subject or complement of serin this construction is nosotros or vosotros

[SP], then ser agrees in number with the pronoun:Sois vosotros los que tenéis

que investigarlo[SP] ‘It’s you who need to investigate it’.

In Peninsular Spanish, if the focused noun or pronoun follows a preposi-

tion (including personal a), this preposition must be repeated before the

relative pronoun:

Fue con la secretaria con la que hablé.

It was to the secretary that I spoke.

Es a María a la que han nombrado.

It’s María they’ve nominated.

Notes:

1 For an alternative construction in Latin America, see 30.5.

2 With por eso‘for that reason’, the following pattern is acceptable in all parts of

the Spanish-speaking world:Es por eso que(rather than por lo que)no quería

ir‘That’s why I didn’t want to go’.

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Alternatives

to the basic

system

265