Breakdown of Il comitato ascolta il relatore, il quale spiega l'esito dell'indagine.
di
of, from
ascoltare
to listen / to listen to
spiegare
to explain
il quale
who, which, whom (also la quale, i quali, le quali)
il relatore
the speaker, the presenter
il comitato
the committee (organizing, executive)
l'indagine
the survey, the investigation (f)
l'esito
the outcome, the result (m)
Questions & Answers about Il comitato ascolta il relatore, il quale spiega l'esito dell'indagine.
Why use il quale here instead of the much more common che?
If both il comitato and il relatore are masculine singular, how do we know il quale refers to the speaker?
Proximity! When genders and numbers match, il quale refers to the noun immediately preceding it (il relatore). If the sentence had a feminine noun and a masculine noun (e.g., la giuria and il relatore), using il quale or la quale would be incredibly useful to instantly clear up grammatical ambiguity about who is doing the explaining.
Could we use cui in this sentence instead of il quale?
No. Cui is only used after prepositions (like a cui or di cui) to mean things like "to whom" or "of which." Because "who" is the explicit subject of the verb spiega ("who explains"), your only choices for a relative pronoun here are che or il quale.
Why is there a comma before il quale?
The comma creates a non-defining relative clause, meaning it just adds extra, descriptive information about the speaker rather than identifying which speaker the committee is listening to. Il quale and its variations are heavily preferred over che in these types of descriptive clauses separated by a comma.
Is there a difference between esito and risultato?
They both mean "result," but esito specifically emphasizes the final outcome or conclusion of a process. It is the preferred, formal term for official contexts, such as the outcome of an investigation (indagine), an election, or a medical test.
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