Italian grammar · Intermediate (B1)
Relative pronouns: che, cui, il quale, quello che
How to link sentences in Italian with che and cui, when to use il quale, and how to say “what” with quello che.
Che: who, which, that
joins two sentences about the same person or thing. It can be the subject (, the guy who works at the café) or the object (, the film we saw). It never changes.
In English you can often leave out “that”, but in Italian you can't: (the girl I met).
Preposition + cui
After a preposition, becomes , and the preposition always goes first. English often puts the preposition at the end or leaves it out. For places, is a common alternative to : .
| Italian | English |
|---|---|
| the city I live in | |
| the friend I work with | |
| the book I told you about | |
| the person I wrote to | |
| the reason why I'm here |
Il quale, la quale, i quali, le quali
In formal Italian, especially in writing, can replace or . It agrees with the noun, and the article joins with a preposition: , .
It's also useful to avoid confusion: in , it's clearly the sister who lives in Rome. In everyday conversation, and are much more common.
Quello che: what
To say “what” meaning “the thing that”, use (or the shorter ). means “everything that”.
- Quello che conta è vincere.What matters is winning.
- Non capisco quello che dici.I don't understand what you're saying.
- Ho fatto tutto quello che potevo.I did everything I could.