Breakdown of C'est une variante qui donne beaucoup de points.
être
to be
un
a / an (masculine)
ce
it / this (with être)
qui
who
beaucoup de
a lot of / many
donner
to give
le point
the point
la variante
the variant
Questions & Answers about C'est une variante qui donne beaucoup de points.
Since this lesson is about using lequel or laquelle to clear up subject ambiguity, why do we just use qui here instead of laquelle?
In this sentence, there is no ambiguity about the subject of the relative clause. The pronoun qui immediately follows its only possible antecedent (une variante), and there are no other nouns nearby that could cause confusion. You only step up to using lequel or laquelle as a subject when you specifically need their gender or number to clarify which of multiple preceding nouns is doing the action.
Because variante is feminine, could we say Elle est une variante instead of C'est une variante?
No, you must use C'est here. In French, when you introduce or identify a noun that includes a determiner (like the article une), you almost always use C'est. You use Il est or Elle est when describing someone or something with an unmodified adjective or an unarticulated profession (like Elle est intelligente).
Why is it beaucoup de points and not beaucoup des points?
Is donner the only verb used for 'giving' points in French games?
While donner (to give) is perfectly natural and very common, you will also frequently hear the verb rapporter (to yield or bring in) used when talking about scoring points or earning a reward. Saying qui rapporte beaucoup de points would mean exactly the same thing and sound very native in a board game or video game context.
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