Look at the following sentences: This is my friend. My friend got good marks. This structure is rather clumsy and awkward and most people would say: This is my friend who got good marks. The same is true in French- you can link sentences together using qui, que or dont, but you need to know which one to use.(qui/que and dont can be used for animate and inanimate objects so they are the same as who, which, that etc.) Qui Consider the sentence: My friend is the subject of the second clause - my friend did the 'getting of good marks' so we link the sentences with qui Voici mon ami qui a reç u de bonnes notes All the following sentences would use qui - the item in the first clause is the subject of the second clause: This is the girl who kissed me There's that boy who beat me up Anne, who hadn't felt well all day, threw up over John on the coach David, who has fancied Abi for ages, finally asked her out last week. Que Now consider this sentence: My friend is the object of the second clause - (I is the subject, my friend is the object) so we link the sentence with que Voici mon ami que j'ai vu dans le parc All the following sentences would be linked with que - the item in the first clause is the object of the second clause This is the girl who I kissed There's that boy who David beat up Anne, who John had been chatting up on the coach, was sick David, who Abi has fancied for ages, finally asked her out last week. Dont Dont is similar to qui and que. It is used to link sentences but means of whom/of which/about whom etc. It is used when the verb in the second clause is followed by de. You cannot end a sentence or a clause with de in French so:- The man who I was talking about/of - L'homme que je parlais de becomes The man about whom I was talking - L'homme dont je parlais. Lots of verbs in French take de when they don't in English. This is shown below: to need Here's the book that I need avoir besoin de Voici le livre dont j'ai besoin to use Here's the book that I use every day se servir de Voici le livre dont je me sers tous les jours to fear/to be scared of Here's the teacher I'm scared of avoir peur de Voici le prof dont j'ai peur Dont can also mean whose Voici le garç on dont le pè re est maire = This is the boy whose father is mayor L'homme, dont le frè re est notre facteur, est trè s riche = The man, whose brother is our postman, is very rich. Test yourself Fill the gap by dragging the appropriate missing word - qui, que or dont - from the bottom of the table: /**/