La mujer con quien hablé es mi jefa.Esta es la ciudad donde nací.The woman I spoke with is my boss.This is the city where I was born.

Que covers most relative clauses, but two situations call for a different word instead: a preposition before a person uses quien, and a location often reads more naturally with donde.

Quick shortcut: after a preposition, use quien (only for people) instead of que. For a place, donde can replace en que/en el que — and often sounds better.

Quien: people, after a preposition

Que still works for people as a subject or direct object (el hombre que vive aquí), but the moment a preposition is involved — with whom, for whom, about whom — que isn't enough on its own. This is where quien (plural quienes) comes in, always referring to a person:

La mujer con quien hablé es mi jefa. (The woman I spoke with is my boss.) Los amigos con quienes viajé viven en Perú. (The friends I traveled with live in Peru.) Ese es el chico para quien compré el regalo. (That's the boy I bought the gift for.)

Quien agrees in number with its antecedent — singular quien, plural quienes — but has no separate feminine form.

Quien without an antecedent: "whoever"

Quien/quienes can also stand with no expressed antecedent at all, meaning roughly "the person/people who" or "whoever" — no preposition required:

Quien estudia, aprueba. (Whoever studies, passes.) Quienes lleguen tarde no podrán entrar. (Those who arrive late won't be able to get in.)

That's a separate construction from preposition + quien above — both use the same word, but this one has no antecedent to point back to. It's close to Lo que's territory but refers to a person rather than a thing or an idea.

An alternative for people: preposition + el que/el cual

Spanish also allows el que (agreeing in gender and number: el que, la que, los que, las que) or the more formal el cual family after a preposition, instead of quien:

La mujer con la que hablé... = La mujer con quien hablé... (both correct, same meaning.)

The two aren't identical in flavor: el que/el cual agree in gender and number with the antecedent, which quien doesn't mark at all, and el cual in particular tends toward more formal or written Spanish — useful for keeping a long or complex prepositional clause clear (la razón por la cual renunció).

Donde: for a place

Donde (no accent mark, unlike the question word dónde) introduces a relative clause about a location:

Esta es la ciudad donde nací. (This is the city where I was born.) El restaurante donde comimos anoche cerró. (The restaurant where we ate last night closed.)

Donde is largely interchangeable with en que / en el que whenever the missing piece is genuinely a location:

La casa donde vivo = La casa en (la) que vivo. (The house where/in which I live.)

For most everyday sentences about a place, donde is the more natural choice — en que/en el que can sound a little formal or bookish outside of writing.

The accent mark tells relative and question words apart

Quien/quienes and donde never carry a written accent. Their look-alikes quién/quiénes and dónde — with an accent — are interrogative and exclamative words, used in direct and indirect questions and in exclamations:

¿Quién llamó? (Who called? — direct question.) No sé quién llamó. (I don't know who called — indirect question, accent kept.) ¡Quién pudiera viajar así! (If only I could travel like that! — exclamation, accent kept.) vs. La persona quien llamó... ❌ — a relative clause never uses the accented form; ✅ La persona que llamó...

No sé dónde vive. (I don't know where he lives — indirect question, accent kept.) vs. La ciudad donde vive... (relative clause, no accent.)

Common mistakes

  • ❌ La mujer que hablé (missing preposition, meaning "the woman I spoke with") → ✅ La mujer con quien/con la que hablé. (a preposition before a person needs quien or el que, not bare que.)
  • ❌ El libro quien leo → ✅ El libro que leo. (quien only ever refers to people — for things, stick with que.)
  • ❌ La ciudad que nací → ✅ La ciudad donde nací. (a location as the missing piece calls for donde, not bare que.)
  • ❌ La persona quién llamó → ✅ La persona que llamó. (the accented question word quién doesn't belong in a plain relative clause.)

Quick check

  1. Complete: El profesor ___ (con + quien/que) hablamos es muy amable.
  2. Complete: Esta es la playa ___ (que/donde) pasamos las vacaciones.
  3. Why is quien wrong in El coche quien compré es nuevo?
  4. Fix the accent: La ciudad dónde vive mi hermana es grande.
Show answers
  1. El profesor con quien hablamos es muy amable.
  2. Esta es la playa donde pasamos las vacaciones.
  3. Quien only refers to people; el coche is a thing, so it needs que: El coche que compré es nuevo.
  4. La ciudad donde vive mi hermana es grande — no accent, since this is a relative clause, not a question.

Key takeaways

  • After a preposition referring to a person, use quien/quienes (or el que/el cual) instead of bare que.
  • For a place, donde often replaces en que/en el que and sounds more natural.
  • Quien only ever refers to people; for things, que still does the job.
  • Quien/quienes and donde carry no written accent — the accented quién/quiénes/dónde are question words, not relative pronouns.