Salut,
thank you in advance to anyone who can help me! I have three questions:
1. Of these three forms which would a French person use the most naturally in speaking and writing?
2. Is it OK to use "duquel" and "de laquelle" when referring to people and not to things?
3. If the verb is one which takes a different preposition (not "de") what should we use instead of "dont"?
Merci beaucoup!
Bonjour Alan,
Thank you for your questions. It is always nice to see students asking more detailed questions. I had fun answering this!
1. Generally, 'dont' is the relative pronoun that should be used in the majortity of cases with verbs or verbal expressions including de', being in writing form or speaking form. As you can see in the lesson itself, ‘dont’ is used on all of the first 4 examples.
Les boutons de manchette dont…
La fille dont…
Le garçon dont…
Les chaussures dont…
In Modern French, 'dont' is the better option as 'duquel etc' is very archaic and used in very very formal writing.
Here is an example where 'duquel etc' can be used though:
Le fils de Marie, duquel je t'ai parlé... = Marie's son, the one I was telling you about...
→ 'dont' would imply you are talking about Marie and not her son
2. ‘Duquel etc’ is most of the time used with prepositional phrases: près de, loin de, à côté de etc
Voici la ville, au centre de laquelle se trouve le musée = here is the town, in the centre of which is the museum
3. If 'de' isn't the preposition following the verb then you can’t use 'dont'. It becomes ‘preposition + lequel / laquelle / lesquels / lesquelles’
L’infirmière avec laquelle / avec qui il travaille est très gentille = the nurse he works with (with whom he works) is very nice.
Le pompier auquel / à qui tu parles est drôle = the fireman you are talking to (to whom you are talking) is funny.
See two links:
a-qui-auquel-a-laquelle-to-whom-what-which-relative-pronouns
prepositions-qui-lequel-laquelle-on-what-behind-whom-beside-which-etc-relative-pronouns
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée!
Bonjour Chris,
Thank you for your question. I can see this has been discussed before on this thread. I feel I need to be more precise here.
There are cases where 'duquel etc' is used instead of 'dont' :
Le fils de Marie, duquel je t'ai parlé... = Marie's son, the one I was telling you about...
→ 'dont' would imply you are talking about Marie and not her son.
Hier, j'ai rencontré ce couple, de la maison duquel j'avais parlé = yesterday, I met this couple, the house of whom I had talked about
→ 'dont' would imply you are talking about the house.
About ‘au centre de laquelle’, yes, indeed, you are right when you say that ‘duquel / de laquelle …’ will be used here (with a prepositional phrase such as ‘au centre de’).
La ville au centre de laquelle ... = the town in the centre of which...
C’est la plage au bord de laquelle ... = It is the beach along which …
Le bâtiment au milieu duquel … = the building inside which ...
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée!
Hi Alan,
This lesson has now been updated, we hope it is helpful.
Also, take a look at a new lesson on which relative pronouns to use with prepositional phrases.
Using duquel, de laquelle etc with prepositional phrases with "de"
Bonne Continuation!
@Celine, my understanding is that dont and duquel/... are not interchangeable. I seem to remember that dont is used in verbial phrases and duquel in pronomial phrases:
Le garçon dont tu parles (NOT duquel, since it is a verbal phrase: parler de qqn).
La ville au centre de laquelle se trouve la maison... (NOT dont la maison se trouve...)
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