Ce qui, ce que, ce qu’ and ce dont – Exercises with solutions

Ce qui and ce que 

Who or what is doing the action in the second part of the sentence? (After we insert ce qui)

• Je sais ce qui est le plus important dans la vie: I know what’s most important in life.

It’s still the same person (je). It’s me who knows what’s most important in life.

Let’s look at 2 more examples:

• Elle sait ce qui a causé ce problème : She knows what caused the problem
• Elle sait ce qui s’est passé : She knows what happened.

Who is doing something after we insert ce qui?

It’s the same person, right?

However, if someone else is doing the action in the second part of the sentence, the indefinite relative pronoun will change. For instance:

• Je sais ce que tu penses de ma vie : I know what you think about my life.

Thus, if the second part of the sentence begins with a pronoun, it’s very likely that you need to use ce que.

(Pronoun= Tu, je, nous etc.)

• Tu fais ce que tu veux faire: You do what you want to do

Another definition is that  ce que receives the action.

Let’s look at 2 more examples:

• Nous savons ce que vous avez prévu : We know what you have planned.
• Il écoute ce que je choisis : He listens to what I choose

2 important conclusions:

1. If the second part of sentence begins with a pronoun (tu, je, nous etc.), it’s very likely that we’ll use ce que.
2. Ce que is NOT the one doing the action.

ce qu’

Please note that we can only replace Ce que with ce qu’. For instance:

• Je sais ce qu’elle pense: I know what she thinks.

But, Ce qui will not change, even when the following word begins with a vowel.

For instance:

• Je sais ce qui est important : I know what is important.

(e is a vowel)

• Elle veut savoir ce qui a été réalisé : She wants to know what has been achieved.

(a is a vowel)

 

Ce dont

 

So, how do I know if an expression is tied to de?

I have prepared a small list 🙂

• Parler de: To talk about
• Avoir peur de: To be afraid of
• Avoir envie de: To feel like
• S’occuper de: To take care of
• S’agir de: To be about
• Avoir besoin de: To need
• S’inquiéter de: To worry about
• Se souvenir de: To remember

 

Examples:

• Il t’offert ce dont tu as besoin: He gives you what you need.
• C’est ce dont tu as peur: It’s what you are afraid of.
• C’est exactement ce dont je me souviens : It’s exactly what I remember.

Exercises

With comments 

Comment:

The second part of the sentence is not followed by a pronoun like, tu, je, vous etc.

The action does not change. It’s the same person who will speak about his or her country.

Thus, we’ll choose ce qui.

Comment:

There is someone else doing something after we insert our indefinite relative pronoun, tu.

So, ce que will be our answer 🙂

Comment:

This is one is maybe a bit more tricky.

We can still see that there is no pronoun in the second part of the sentence.

Thus, we can also conclude that the action does not change in the second part of the sentence.

ce qui is still the subject of the verb.

Comment:

You should remember that le patron could be the same as il/he.

La patronne could be the same as elle/she.

What am I trying to say? 🙂

The action change in the second part of the sentence.

It’s the boss/le patron who wants to hear something.

Comment:

Ok, now we have 3 different options.

We can begin by excluding ce qui.

It’s probably more difficult to exclude ce que.

We know that the second part of the sentence begins with a pronoun and a verb conjugation (tu as).

The answer could be ce que.

However, the expression avoir besoin de requires us to replace the preposition de.

Thus, the answer will be ce dont.

Knowing which verbs that are related to ce dont can be difficult. It’s a process that takes time.

For now, you can look at the list of verbs that are constructed with the preposition de under the chapter ce dont.

Comment:

Tu as peur de moi?

Tu as peur de nous?

Do you remember that we need to use ce dont for expressions tied to the preposition de?

This is a good example of that 🙂

Comment:

Elle is indeed a pronoun, but it begins with a vowel.

Comment:

Without comments

What is the difference between ce qui and qui?

Ok, there was not enough space in the headline.

The question should have been:

What is the difference between (1) ce qui, ce que, ce qu’, ce dont and (2) qui, qui, qu’ and dont?

(1) will refer to the entire sentence. For instance:

• Elle décide ce que tu vas faire: She decides what you are going to do.

(2) will, in general, refer to something in the phrase (antécédent)

• Nous avons acheté une voiture que vous pouvez emprunter: We bought a car that you can borrow.

In this phrase, we are referring to a car before the introduction of the relative clause.

Let’s look at 2 more examples:

(1) Je me demande ce que tu viens de faire: I wonder what you just did.

(2) J’ai fait une grosse erreur que je vais regretter pour le reste de ma vie: I made a big mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life.

So, we have looked at examples for que and ce que. What about the other relative pronouns?

The fundamental difference remains the same. That is, you can apply the same rules.

In due time, I can almost promise you that you will find it easy to see the difference between these relative pronouns.

You just need to immerse yourself in the language. Some rules does not need much explanation. It’s more a question of getting used to common grammatical constructions.

However, there are always exceptions, where the difference can be a bit more difficult to decipher.

These exceptions are often represented by ce dont and dont. 

We need to know when we should replace the preposition de against a relative pronoun.

I have given you some examples of this in the article. Let’s look at a final example:

• Je m’occupe de cette fille: I take care of this girl
• C’est la fille dont je m’occupe: It’s the girl that I take care of