Breakdown of La sœur du meneur, laquelle explique les règles, est en train de mélanger les cartes.
la sœur
the sister
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
mélanger
to mix
la règle
the rule
expliquer
to explain
la carte
the card
être en train de
to be in the middle of (doing)
lequel
which (masculine singular, feminine laquelle, plural lesquels, lesquelles)
le meneur
the gamemaster
Questions & Answers about La sœur du meneur, laquelle explique les règles, est en train de mélanger les cartes.
Why do we use laquelle here instead of just qui?
In French, qui typically refers to the noun immediately before it. If we wrote La sœur du meneur, qui explique..., it would strongly imply that the meneur is explaining the rules. By using the feminine pronoun laquelle, we make it crystal clear that the feminine noun (la sœur) is the one doing the action.
Can we really use laquelle for a person? I learned it was only for things.
You can! It is true that after prepositions, qui is used for people and lequel or laquelle for things. However, when used as a subject to replace qui (meaning there is no preposition), lequel and its forms are used specifically to resolve ambiguity between two nouns, regardless of whether they are people or things.
If it was the male gamemaster explaining the rules, how would we write it?
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