"Quien" and "Que"

Question

It is confusing when to use "quien" or "que" in one instance. To be specific, why is "que+llamarse" used to form the phrase: "Someone named", in Spanish?

Answer 1

Jasmine101 asked:

However, if there is a preposition involved, such as "de quien" "en quien", "quien" instead of "que" is used to refer to of whom, in whom.

María es la chica de quien te hablaba. María es la chica de la que te hablaba. (no difference). (quien vs. la que).

María es una chica en quien confío. María es una chica en la que confío (no difference). (quien vs. la que)

Quien or el / la que can be used interchangeably almost all the time. There are instances in which que is the only possible option.

Pablo, el que tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo. Pablo, quien tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo. (please note el que vs. quien)

El niño que no quiera estudiar, no podrá ir a casa. There is no room for "quien" here.

Interesting. But I wish I understood why no possibility of quien on the last one. I can´t see the difference. I´m not arguing of course, just struggling to understand - rogspax, Dec 17, 2012

quien can be used when replacing el que or la que. I think that sums it up. - francobollo, Dec 17, 2012

Answer 2

I am told that in most cases, que is used instead of quien, when the meaning is "who/whom" and when the "que" is right after the person it modifies. As illustrated in francobollo's example above.

However, if there is a preposition involved, such as "de quien" "en quien", "quien" instead of "que" is used to refer to of whom, in whom.

My statement after "However" is not quite right. Ignore it, and see other most with more info. - JazSpanish, Dec 17, 2012

Answer 3

Pablo, el que tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo.

Pablo, quien tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo. (please note el que vs. quien)

These statements are completely different to me. The first one suggests that there are several Pablos, and you are referring to the one with blue eyes. In the second one the clause between commas is just describing Pablo. Saying "quien" instead of "que" here sounds pretty unnatural in my opinion.

Pablo, que tiene los ojos azules...= Pablo, quien tiene los ojos azules....

El niño que no quiera estudiar, no podrá ir a casa. There is no room for "quien" here.

El que no quiera estudiar no podrá ir a casa = Quien no quiera estudiar no podrá ir a casa.

Answer 4

My inaccurate statement:

However, if there is a preposition involved, such as "de quien" "en quien", "quien" instead of "que" is used to refer to of whom, in whom.

Franco's post:

María es la chica de quien te hablaba. María es la chica de la que te hablaba. (no difference). (quien vs. la que).

María es una chica en quien confío. María es una chica en la que confío (no difference). (quien vs. la que)

Quien or el / la que can be used interchangeably almost all the time. There are instances in which que is the only possible option.

Pablo, el que tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo. Pablo, quien tiene los ojos azules, es mi amigo. (please note el que vs. quien)

El niño que no quiera estudiar, no podrá ir a casa. There is no room for "quien" here.

Thank you Franco for pointing out the error in my previous post. I revisited one of the very helpful thread on this topic, and would like to add some info:

1. As Franco said, la/el que and quien are often interchangeable, and often the natives use la/el que instead of quien. It seems they don't like "quien" very much.

2. If there is a preposition involved, you can use preposition + quien, or preposition + el/la que; however, you cannot use use preposition + que.

3. In the bold sentence "El niño que..." apparently there is some resuscitation on the usage of "quien" here, which is, quien cannot be used immediately after the word it refers to unless a propitiation is involved. I do not fully understand it, however, if you are interested, take a look at [this discussion][1].

I hope this will undo some of the damages I had made in the previous post. I have given up trying to rationalize que/quien, and hope to get it one day through osmosis.

[1]: http://spanishhelp.freeforums.org/post5173.html?hilit= quien que#p5173

Hmm, I tried a few times, but couldn't get the link right. Sorry - JazSpanish, Dec 17, 2012

Answer 5

Making a bit of a generalization.

Quién is who?

and

Qué is which? or what?

Que can be ´that´ also.

You haven´t really provided enough context, but que wouldn´t necessarily be required there.

Se llama Mónica. Her name is Monica (lit. She calls herself Monica)

Sabes, que se llama Mónica? Do you know that her name is Monica?

So, if it were a question or comment THAT she calls herself Monica, then the QUE is in there to play the roll that THAT plays in English.

hope that helps.

I realize I may not have enough context or experience to answer that fully.

I too await seeing what the natives have to say.

Note we tend to play pretty fast and loose with that in English.

Someone who calls herself a star. Someone that calls herself a star.

The former is better, but we pretty freely interchange in everyday speech.

Answer 6

Que as a relative pronoun is translated in English as that or who. In Spanish, we can also use quien.

La mujer, quien dijo llamarse Elena, es española.

La mujer, que dijo llamarse Elena, es española.

Or

El señor que trabaja en la esquina se llama Ramón. No room here to use quien. Normally, you would need a subordinate clause like the examples above to use them both interchangeably.

I hope this helps.