Learn Spanish (Latin America): La institución, la cual trabaja con el gobierno, emitió el certificado. - The institution, which works with the government, issued the certificate.

La institución, la cual trabaja con el gobierno, emitió el certificado.

The institution, which works with the government, issued the certificate.

Breakdown of La institución, la cual trabaja con el gobierno, emitió el certificado.

which / who (feminine singular)

Questions & Answers about La institución, la cual trabaja con el gobierno, emitió el certificado.

Why do we use la cual here instead of just que?

You can absolutely use que here! However, la cual is a formal relative pronoun often used in written Spanish or formal speech. It frequently appears between commas when adding non-essential, extra information to a sentence, just like in this example. It makes the sentence sound a bit more official or elevated.

Could I say el cual in this sentence?

No, because these formal relative pronouns must match the gender and number of the noun they refer back to. Since it refers to la institución, which is feminine and singular, you have to use la cual. If the noun were masculine, like el banco (the bank), you would use el cual.

Why is emitió in the preterite tense here instead of the imperfect?

Emitió is the preterite (simple past) tense of emitir (to issue). It is used here because issuing the certificate was a single, completed event. If you wanted to say the institution "was issuing" or "used to issue" certificates, you would use the imperfect tense: emitía.

Is there a trick to remembering the gender of words like institución?

Yes! Nouns that end in -ción (which usually correspond to English words ending in "-tion") are almost always feminine. Remembering this rule helps you instantly know to use la, and later in the sentence, the matching feminine pronoun la cual.