Relative Pronouns referring to People

In Spanish, 'que' is used for 'who', 'whom' and 'that', when referring to people. For example:

La mujer que llegó ayer = the woman who arrived yesterday
Mi hermana, que tiene ventidos años, es profesora = My sister, who is twenty-one, is a teacher
El chico que vi en la biblioteca = The boy that I saw in the library

When the relative pronoun is used with a preposition (e.g. con, de), you must use el que / la que / los que / las que or quien / quienes. This must agree with the noun it replaces. Examples:

El chico con lo que / con quien estabas hablando = The boy who you were talking to
Los niños de los que / de quienes te ocupas = The children that you look after
La mujer de la que / de quien me hablaste llega la semana que viene = The girl that you told me about arrives next week
Las chicas con las que / con quienes estoy hablando = The girls that I am talking to

Relative Pronouns referring to Things

In Spanish, 'que' is used for 'which' and 'that', when referring to things. For example:

La película que ganó el premio = The film that / which won the prize
El libro que compré = The book that / which I bought

When the relative pronoun is used with a preposition (e.g. con, de), you must use el que / la que / los que / las que. This must agree with the noun it replaces. Examples:

El tema del que habla = The subject that he is talking about
La biblioteca a la que siempre va = The library that / which he always goes to

*The neuter form, lo que, is used when referring to the whole of the previous part of the sentence or referring to something without gender, meaning 'what'. Examples:

Todo está tranquilo, lo que me parece raro = Everything is quiet, which seems strange
Esto es de lo que queríamos hablar = This is what we would like to talk about
¿Vamos al cine o al teatro? Lo que quieras = Shall we go to the cinema or the theatre? Whatever you want

Relative Pronoun Rules

1) DO NOT OMIT RELATIVE PRONOUNS IN SPANISH

In English, we often miss out relative pronouns, for example, we can say:

The teacher that I admire the most OR The teacher I admire the most (i.e. omit 'that')
The house which we want to buy OR The house we want to buy (i.e. omit 'which')

In Spanish, the relative pronoun 'que' can never be omitted.

2) COMBINE 'DE' and 'A' WITH 'EL QUE'

When 'de' is used with 'el que', they must be combined to become 'del que'. When 'a' is used with 'el que', they are combined to become 'al que'.

Examples:

El niño del que te hablé = The child that I told you about
El tema del que habla = The subject that he is talking about
El hombre al que te refieres = The man that you are referring to
El polideportivo al que siempre va = The sports centre that / which he always goes to

3) NEVER PUT PREPOSITIONS AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE

In English, prepositions can be put at the end of the sentence, e.g. the woman he is talking to. However, in Spanish, the preposition must never be placed at the end of the sentence. For example:

La mujer con la que / con quien está hablando = The woman he is talking to.

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