lequel
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French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From le (“the”) + quel (“which”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
lequel m (feminine laquelle, masculine plural lesquels, feminine plural lesquelles)
- (relative, following a preposition) which, that, whom
- Elle préfère l’homme avec lequel tu sortais.
- She prefers the man with whom you were going out.
- Il se remet à travailler sur le projet pour lequel il avait déjà passé tellement de temps.
- He's starting to work on the project on which he had already spent so much time.
- (interrogative) which one
- Passe-moi le ballon. ― Lequel ? Il y en a trois.
- Pass me the ball. — Which one? There are three of them.
Usage notes[edit]
- As a relative pronoun, lequel can refer to people or things (unlike qui, which can only refer to people after a preposition). After the prepositions entre and parmi, lequel must be used whether it refers to a person or a thing.
- As an interrogative pronoun, lequel must agree in gender and number with the noun it replaces. As a relative pronoun it must agree with the antecedent of the relative clause.
Related terms[edit]
- auquel (à + lequel)
- auxquels (à + lesquels)
- auxquelles (à + lesquelles)
- duquel (de + lequel)
- desquels (de + lesquels)
- desquelles (de + lesquelles)
- n’importe lequel
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “lequel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.