lequel

French

Etymology

From le (“the”) +‎ quel (“which”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lə.kɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

lequel m (feminine laquelle, masculine plural lesquels, feminine plural lesquelles)

1. (relative, following a preposition) which, that, whom

   Elle préfère l’homme avec lequel tu sortais.

   She prefers the man with whom you were going out.

   Il se remet à travailler sur le projet pour lequel il avait déjà passé tellement de temps.

   He's starting to work on the project on which he had already spent so much time.

2. (interrogative) which one

   Passe-moi le ballon. ― Lequel ? Il y en a trois.

   Pass me the ball. — Which one? There are three of them.

Usage notes

• As a relative pronoun, lequel can refer to people or things (unlike qui, which can only refer to people after a preposition). After the prepositions entre and parmi, lequel must be used whether it refers to a person or a thing.
• As an interrogative pronoun, lequel must agree in gender and number with the noun it replaces. As a relative pronoun it must agree with the antecedent of the relative clause.

Related terms

• auquel (à + lequel)
• auxquels (à + lesquels)
• auxquelles (à + lesquelles)
• duquel (de + lequel)
• desquels (de + lesquels)
• desquelles (de + lesquelles)
• n’importe lequel

See also

• celui

Further reading

• “lequel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• quelle, qu’elle