Grammar question

Factual Questions
1

I ask this question tho those who get off on Fowler, so it is possible that the question will remain unanswered.

Okay, in French one could say

  1. Je connais la fille QUI chante.
  2. Il y a une fille QUE je connais.

Now, in English, what are the object pronouns that are analgous to ‘que’ and ‘qui’? When reading, I sometimes see “The airplane THAT was parked in the hanger was broken” and other times (especially in British lit) “The airplane WHICH was parked in the hanger was broken”. (I put commas around ‘which’ clauses.)

The QUESTION: Do the pronouns ‘that’ and ‘which’ correspond in any way to que and qui, depending on whether it is a subject or an object? One differentiates between who and whom. I know that ‘which’ is non-restrictive, etc. Which sentence is the most correct?

  1. I bought the table that I saw.
    [I bought the table at which I looked.]
  2. I bought the table, which I saw.
    [I bought the table, and, by the way, I looked at it.]
  3. I bought the table which I saw. (Maybe same as 1?)

Now, since the table is not actually performing the action, does one only choose between ‘that’ and ‘which’ based on whether the clause is restrictive? I’m interested in formality, not common practice.

Also, does one always use ‘whom’ for people?
The judge whom I saw…
The judge that I saw…

By the way, I do have a life.

2

I can’t say for the French, but the answer is … it depends upon how picky you are.

Most of the time, THAT is used to introduce restrictive clauses, “the house that I live in” THAT tells you exactly which house you mean.

WHICH is used for nonrestrictive clauses. E.g. My friend wanted to go to a movie WHICH I had already seen.

However, most people just interchange the words now because these differences are nearly impossible to keep straight.

Some strict grammarians think that WHOM should be used in place of restrictive clauses where a person is the object.

3

“Qui” normally translate as “who” or “whom,” but can also be used for “that” or “which”, depending on the context. (I’m relying on my Cassell English-French Dictionary for that statement.)

I would translate your two sentences like this:

  1. Je connais la fille QUI chante.

“I know the girl who is singing.”

  1. Il y a une fille QUE je connais.

“There is a girl that I know.”

But that’s just my rough guess.

Thanks for doing your bit to advance the cause of human knowledge.
 
  – Cecil Adams

4

OK.

La fille qui chante = The girl who is singing.
La fille que je connais = The girl who(m) I know.
La fille à laquelle j’ai donné le livre = The girl to whom I gave the book (or “who I gave the book to”)
(for extra credit :slight_smile:
La fille dont j’ai lu le livre = The girl whose book I read

Whom is considered formal, and sometimes the correlative is omitted entirely from the second sentence (“The girl I saw”).
In the third sentence, formal usage is “the girl to whom I gave the book”; informal usage is “the girl who I gave the book to” or even “the girl I gave the book to”.

‘That’ is supposed to be used only with a restrictive clause, i.e. one where if you took the clause out it wouldn’t have the same meaning. (“I have three chairs that I’m willing to sell” doesn’t mean the same as “I have three chairs.”)

‘Which’ is supposed to be used with an unrestrictive clause, which only supplies an extra bit of information. A comma should also be used. (“I have three chairs, which I’m willing to sell” necessarily means “I have (exactly) three chairs.”)

‘Which’ is also used with a clause which is modifying the whole sentence, rather than just a noun phrase in it. The equivalent in French is “ce qui” or “ce que”. (“I have three chairs, which pleases me” = “J’ai trois chaises, ce qui me plaît”).

5

I’m impressed. However, it should be:

La fille à qui j’ai donné le livre.

“Laquelle/Lequel” is used instead of “qui” when the “antécédent” (the word it relates to, I don’t know the equivalent in English…) is the name of an animal or a thing.

6

Je ne parle pas francais bien, donc je ne puis pas répondre à votre question.

Pour cette matière, mon anglais est terrible aussi.

Je suis désolé.

7

Antecedent is the same in English. And thanks. I could never understand qui/lequel.

8

I always thought English stuff like this was hard to learn, until I started my Latin minor…

That or which??? Pshaw . . . laudo, laudor, or was it laudabo???

(By the way, from what I learned in my Printing and Publishing Minor, Bob and Matt have pretty much answered your question.)