10.4. Summary que, quem, o qual / a qual / os quais / as quais

With the relative pronouns que, quem, o qual / a qual / os quais / as quais nouns can be referred.

(Relative pronouns can refer to

a) pronouns, "He, who always lies, accuse others to be liars",
b) context, "He gave her the painting as a gift, what delighted her",
c) indefinite pronoun, "Someone who can do it, should do it",
d) adverbs and adverbials, "The way how he did it confused everbody".

Until now we have not discussed about that, but we will do that later, see relative pronouns refering indefinite pronouns. Until now we only talked about nouns. About the other things that can be refered to by a relative pronoun we will talk later.)

The table below is a summary of all what has been said until now, although it just shows a tendency. It is easy to find in real life examples that doesn't comply with these rules, but as rules of thumb it is correct.

persons things
subject
restrictive relative clause que / article + qual / quais* que / que / article + qual / quais*
nonrestrictive relative clause quem / que / article + qual / quais que *
direct object
restrictive relative clause que / que / article + qual / quais* que / que / article + qual / quais*
nonrestrictive relative clausea quem / queque / que / article + qual / quais
monosyllabic preposition quem / que* que / article + qual / quais*
polysyllabic preposition que / article + qual / quais * que / article + qual / quais*
sem / sob que / article + qual / quais* que / article + qual / quais*

* remember: There is no article in front of que, but there is on before qual / quais





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