Little by little you have started to write longer sentences in the present and past tenses.  You learned quite some time ago how to use question words such as “¿qué?”, “¿dónde?” and “¿quién?” or “¿quiénes?” and you know how to formulate many questions. Now you will learn how to use a form of those same words, but not to ask questions—instead you will use these words to combine two ideas into a longer sentence: you will turn question words into relative pronouns.

It is important to notice that all question words have an accent mark, and that accent mark is omitted when they are relative pronouns. Here are the three relative pronouns that you will be learning in this chapter:

• que (that, who, which)
• donde (where)
• quien / quienes (who, whom)

A. que

Here is a simple question:

• ¿Cuál es el desierto de sal más grande del mundo? → Es el desierto de Bolivia.

We can use the word “que” to combine the answer with the question in various ways, creating complex sentences:

• Bolivia es el país que tiene el desierto de sal más grande del mundo. (Bolivia is the country that has the largest salt desert in the world.)
• El desierto de sal que está en Bolivia es el más grande del mundo. (The salt desert that is in Bolivia is the biggest in the world.)

B. donde

The same can be done when the sentence talks about where something is:

• ¿Dónde está el desierto de sal más grande del mundo?
• Bolivia es el país donde está el desierto de sal más grande del mundo. (Bolivia is the country where the world’s largest salt desert is.)

C. quien / quienes

You should remember that the question word in Spanish for “who” has a singular and a plural; this is also true of the relative pronoun in Spanish for “who” or “whom”. As in English, these words can only be used to talk about human beings.

Here are some questions that involve people:

• ¿Dónde conociste a los profesores? → en una conferencia
• ¿Quiénes visitaron Bolivia? → los estudiantes de español y ciencias políticas
• ¿Qué vieron los estudiantes en Bolivia? → el desierto de sal
• ¿Quién llevó a los estudiantes a Bolivia? → una profesora de español y uno de ciencias políticas

Now some complex sentences that combine the information:

• Los profesores, a quienes conocí en una conferencia, visitaron Bolivia con sus estudiantes. (The professors, whom I met at a conference, visited Bolivia with their students.)
• Los estudiantes de español y ciencias políticas, quienes visitaron Bolivia, vieron el desierto de sal más grande del mundo. (The Spanish and Political Science students, who visited Bolivia, saw the largest salt desert in the world.)
• La profesora, quien llevó a los estudiantes a Bolivia, enseña español. (The female professor, who brought the students to Bolivia, teaches Spanish.)
• El profesor, quien enseña ciencias políticas, llevó a los estudiantes a Bolivia con una profesora de español. (The male professor, who teaches Political Science, brought the students to Bolivia with a Spanish professor.)

It is possible to use multiple relative pronouns in a single sentence: Spanish has a much higher tolerance for long sentences than English does! For example:

• El profesor, quien enseña ciencias políticas, llevó a los estudiantes a Bolivia, donde hay un desierto de sal que es realmente impresionante. (The professor, who teaches political sciences, brought the students to Bolivia, where there is a salt desert that is really impressive.)