¿Cuál es la razon por la que envias estas flores?
How does "la que" translate in this sentence if "La que" means 'the one who' or 'the one which''
4 Answers
Please don't appologize - it's a good thing to hear explainations from multiple people! It's just like having multiple reference materials. Thanks guys!
Oops, I didn't know Lazarus was around, or I wouldn't have jumped in. He doesn't have to think about his answers as long as I do.
¿Cuál es la razón por la que envías estas flores?
Literal translation: What is the reason for which you send these flowers?
The way we say it: What is the reason that you send/are sending these flowers?
In Spanish we do things "for a reason," hence the "for which." The "la" just clarifies by helping the pronoun agree with its antecedent "razón" in number and gender.
I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I think you could also correctly say:
¿Cuál es la razón por que envías estas flores? (no accent on que)
¿Cuál es la razón por la que envías estas flores?
That's a complicated way of asking "¿Por qué me envías estas flores'", hehe.
A nearly word by word translation could be done like this: "What is the reason because of which you sent me these flowers'", but of course, in English you'd say "why" instead of "because of which".