In French, you usually use qui (who, which, that) for the subject of a relative clause. But what if there are two nouns right before it?
Take the phrase "the sister of the gamemaster, who is explaining the rules." Is the sister explaining, or is the gamemaster?
To remove this ambiguity, replace qui with a gender-specific relative pronoun: lequel (masculine singular) or laquelle (feminine singular). By matching the pronoun to the gender of your intended subject, it becomes perfectly clear who or what is performing the action.
Disambiguating with laquelle
When the true subject of the relative clause is feminine, use laquelle.
| The gamemaster's sister, who is explaining the rules, is in the process of shuffling the cards. | La sœur du meneur, laquelle explique les règles, est en train de mélanger les cartes. |
In the sentence above, laquelle (feminine) refers back to la sœur (feminine), skipping right over le meneur (masculine).
| Move your token to the square of the dragon, which is red. | Déplace ton pion sur la case du dragon, laquelle est rouge. |
Disambiguating with lequel
When the true subject is masculine, use lequel.
| The hourglass of the box, which is broken, is small. | Le sablier de la boîte, lequel est cassé, est petit. |
Here, lequel points back to the masculine sablier (hourglass), bypassing the feminine boîte (box).
| My sister's cooperative game, which is new, is excellent. | Le jeu coopératif de ma sœur, lequel est nouveau, est excellent. |
