Relative pronouns que and quien

Question

Hello, i would like to ask you if there is any difference between these 2 proonouns regarding to persons.

I mean, if i want to talk only about persons and i want to use relative pronoun, can use these 2 interchangeably? (If i am not using personal a or preposition)

Thanks for responses.

Answer 1

Daniel:

This is a rather complex topic. The short answer is, no, they cannot ALWAYS be used interchangeably.

Sometimes only que can be used.

Sometimes only quien can be used.

Sometimes either can be used.

Here is a link to an excellent YouTube video by Professor Jason which touches on the most important things to consider when choosing between que and quien.

Professor Jason on Relative Pronouns

You mentioned prepositions, which is a very important aspect to consider. Generally if there IS a preposition, quien is a safe bet while que can only be used after certain prepositions.

With relative clauses, the most important thing to consider is whether the clause is restrictive or non-restrictive. With a restrictive clauses quien should not be used, we should use que. With a non-restrictive clause either can be used.

Here's an example of restrictive vs non-restrictive:

El corresponsal que escribía reportajes desde Beirut murió anoche.
The correspondent who used to write reports from Beirut died last night.

The above is restrictive. The sentence would normally make no sense without the phrase. Here, only que should be used.

Ese periodista, que/quien lleva años trabajando como corresponsal, fue amigo mío.
That journalist, who worked for years as a correspondent, was a friend of mine.

This sentence is non-restrictive and you will note that the phrase is between commas. Here the clause is only adding extra information. It could be deleted since we know which journalist is being referred to. (from context, with the use of Ese, it appears that the speaker could be pointing at the journalist, or he may have previously referred to him by name, etc.)

With non-restrictive clauses (between commas) either que or quien can be used.

I am not a native speaker. The above information is from a grammar article written by Spaniards. (Lengalia.com - subscription access) You may see "the rule" broken my some native speakers with restrictive clauses. (they might use quien when they shouldn't) Not everyone follows all the grammar rules all the time.

I'll go with this one. - Daniela2041, Aug 2, 2017

Gracias Dani. And I didn't even mention B&B :) - DilKen, Aug 2, 2017

Answer 2

Hi Danie! "Quien" and "quienes" will always refer to people. "Quien" is equivalent to "el/la que" and "quienes" to "los/las que" (not "lo que"); less frequent to "que".

Edit: be careful here because in many cases replacing "que" with "quien" is incorrect. I believe that it is safer to just use "que".

We can say "La mujer con quien comparte su vida se llama María" or "La mujer con la que comparte su vida se llama María".

I believe that the easiest way to translate "el/la/los/las que" into English is as "the one", but someone else may come up with a better translation.

"Quien" and "quienes" is usually more formal than "el/la/los/las que". I, for instance, won't ever use it when speaking (but I am not formal at all!)