Advanced Pronouns

These advanced pronouns are Higher-tier structures in AQA GCSE Spanish (8692). Foundation students already use que and object pronouns, but the forms below are extra Higher content. If you are sitting Foundation, you can skip this lesson.

At Foundation you meet the relative que (that/which/who) and simple object pronouns. Higher tier adds four groups that let you build longer, more precise sentences:

• Neuter and specifying relatives: lo que, el que, el cual
• Wh-relatives: donde, cuando, que
• Possessive pronouns: el mío, el tuyo, el suyo, el nuestro
• Pronouns after prepositions: para mí, sin ti, conmigo, contigo, plus neuter aquello

Mastering these lifts your writing and speaking into the higher mark bands.

Lo que is a neuter relative pronoun. It does not point to a single named noun; it refers to a whole idea, statement or unnamed thing. In English it usually translates as "what" or "that which".

• No entiendo lo que dices. — I do not understand what you say.
• Lo que me gusta es viajar. — What I like is travelling.
• Haz lo que quieras. — Do what you want.
• Me dijo la verdad, lo que me sorprendió. — He told me the truth, which surprised me.

Compare with plain que, which must attach to a specific noun:

• El libro que leí es interesante. — The book that I read is interesting. (que → el libro)
• No entiendo lo que leí. — I do not understand what I read. (no specific noun → lo que)

If you can point to the exact noun, use que. If you mean "the thing that" or a whole idea, use lo que.

El que (and la que, los que, las que) means "the one that" or "the ones that". It stands in for a noun and agrees with it in gender and number.

• Mi hermano es el que vive en Madrid. — My brother is the one who lives in Madrid.
• De todas las casas, la que más me gusta es esta. — Of all the houses, the one I like most is this one.
• Estos zapatos y los que compré ayer. — These shoes and the ones I bought yesterday.

El cual (and la cual, los cuales, las cuales) is a more formal relative, common after a preposition.

• La casa en la cual vivo es antigua. — The house in which I live is old.
• El motivo por el cual vine. — The reason for which I came.

Both sets agree with the noun they replace, so choose the gender and number carefully.

Some relative words describe place, time or a thing directly.

Relative	Meaning	Example
donde	where	La ciudad donde nací es pequeña.
cuando	when	Fue entonces cuando lo entendí.
que	that	La película que vimos era española.

• La ciudad donde nací es pequeña. — The city where I was born is small.
• Fue entonces cuando lo entendí. — It was then that I understood it.
• La película que vimos era española. — The film that we saw was Spanish.

Donde replaces "in which / at which" for places, and cuando does the same for moments in time, giving smoother sentences than repeating a preposition plus el cual.

A possessive pronoun replaces a noun to say something is "mine", "yours" and so on. Unlike possessive adjectives (mi, tu), these carry an article and agree with the thing owned, not the owner.

Owner	masc. sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.
mine	el mío	la mía	los míos	las mías
yours (tú)	el tuyo	la tuya	los tuyos	las tuyas
his/hers	el suyo	la suya	los suyos	las suyas
ours	el nuestro	la nuestra	los nuestros	las nuestras

• Tu coche es rojo; el mío es azul. — Your car is red; mine is blue.
• Mi casa es grande, pero la tuya es más grande. — My house is big, but yours is bigger.
• Nuestros profesores y los suyos. — Our teachers and theirs.

The agreement follows the object owned. La mía is feminine because casa is feminine, even though the owner might be male.

After a preposition (a, de, para, sin, por…), Spanish uses a special set of prepositional pronouns. Most look like the subject pronouns, but the first two are different.

Person	Prepositional form	Example
I	mí	Este regalo es para mí.
you	ti	No puedo vivir sin ti.
he/she	él / ella	Hablo de ella.
we	nosotros/as	Ven con nosotros.

Note that mí takes an accent (to separate it from mi = "my"), while ti never does.

With the preposition con, mí and ti join to form single words:

• ¿Vienes conmigo? — Are you coming with me?
• Sí, voy contigo. — Yes, I am going with you.

Finally, aquello is a neuter demonstrative pronoun meaning "that" (an idea or unnamed thing, often at a distance):

• No me gustó aquello. — I did not like that (whole business).
• ¿Qué es aquello? — What is that over there?

1. Saying con mí or con ti

These are wrong. Con + mí = conmigo; con + ti = contigo. Learn them as fixed words.

2. Confusing mi and mí

Mi (no accent) is "my": mi casa. Mí (with accent) follows a preposition: para mí. Ti never takes an accent.

3. Using que for a whole idea

For "what / the thing that", use lo que: Lo que me gusta es bailar, not que me gusta es bailar.

4. Making the possessive pronoun agree with the owner

El mío / la mía agree with the thing owned. A woman talking about her (masculine) car still says el mío.

5. Forgetting the article on possessive pronouns

You need el, la, los or las: el tuyo, not just tuyo, when the pronoun stands alone as the subject or object.