Learn Spanish (Latin America): La respiración, la cual debe ser tranquila, ayuda a concentrarse. - The breathing, which must be calm, helps to focus.

La respiración, la cual debe ser tranquila, ayuda a concentrarse.

The breathing, which must be calm, helps to focus.

Breakdown of La respiración, la cual debe ser tranquila, ayuda a concentrarse.

Questions & Answers about La respiración, la cual debe ser tranquila, ayuda a concentrarse.

Why use la cual instead of just que for "which"?

While you could perfectly use que here, la cual is a more formal relative pronoun. It is often used in non-defining relative clauses (the extra information placed between commas) in written or elevated Spanish. We use la because it refers back to the feminine singular noun la respiración.

Could we use lo cual in this sentence instead of la cual?

No. lo cual is a neuter pronoun used to refer back to an entire previous idea, action, or situation. Here, the pronoun is referring specifically to a noun, la respiración, so it must match its feminine singular gender by using la cual.

Why is there an a between ayuda and concentrarse?

In Spanish, the verb ayudar (to help) requires the preposition a when it connects to a following infinitive verb. You will always see the pattern ayudar a + [infinitive].

Why is the reflexive pronoun se attached to the end of concentrarse here?