Breakdown of El mensaje es para los colegas de quienes hablamos.
ser
to be
de
from / of
hablar
to speak / to talk
los
the (masculine plural)
el mensaje
the message
para
for
el colega
the colleague
quienes
whom / who (relative plural)
Questions & Answers about El mensaje es para los colegas de quienes hablamos.
Why do we use quienes here instead of quien or que?
quienes is the plural form of quien (who/whom). We use the plural because it refers back to los colegas (the colleagues). Also, when referring to people right after a preposition like de, Spanish requires us to use quien or quienes instead of just que.
In English we talk "about" people. Why does this sentence use de instead of a word for "about"?
In everyday English I'd say "the colleagues who we speak about." Can I put de at the end?
No, Spanish never lets you leave a preposition dangling at the end of a sentence or phrase! The preposition must always come immediately before the relative pronoun. That is why it has to be de quienes (of whom) rather than putting de at the end.
Is hablamos present or past tense here?
It can actually be both! For verbs ending in "-ar", the "we" form is exactly the same in the present tense (hablamos = we speak) and the past preterite tense (hablamos = we spoke). You have to rely on context to know which one is meant, though present tense makes perfect sense here.
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