Dont = Whose (French Relative Pronouns) - Grammar

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Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCELast updated: 2024-08-2861 questionsReport a problem

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Dont = Whose (French Relative Pronouns)Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCELast updated: 2024-08-2861 questionsTake the fastest path to fluent FrenchJoin now for free!

In French, to express "whose", you use the relative pronoun "dont".

How to use "dont" in French

Look at these sentences using the pronoun dont: 

Une fille dont le frère travaillait avec moi...A girl whose brother used to work with me ...   J'ai rencontré cet acteur dont le nom me dit quelque chose...I met this actor whose name rings a bell ...   Tu as jeté la chaussure dont le talon est cassé.You threw away the shoe with the broken heel [lit. whose heel is broken].  Note that the construction with dont is similar to the one with whose in English. Although whose tends to be less used with inanimate objects in English, dont is actually the idiomatic way to express this in French.     In French, dont replaces the possessive expression possession + de: La sœur de Marc  ->  Marc, dont la sœur est journaliste, ... Marc's sister  ->  Marc, whose sister is a journalist, ....   Unlike in English, you can find cases when dont and the possession are separated by a verb, for example:  François, dont j'ai rencontré la femme le mois dernier.François, whose wife I met last month.   When the owner is a person, you can alternatively use de qui as well as dont: however de qui is much less common and doesn't sound nearly as good in French.  Les enfants, de qui je connais la maman, sont bien élevés.The children, whose mum I know, are well behaved.   ATTENTION:  In the context of possession (whose), you won't use duquel, de laquelle, desquels nor desquelles.   See also De qui/dont/duquel = of/about whom, of/about which - with prepositional verbs with "de" (French Relative Pronouns), Duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles with prepositional phrases with "de" (French Relative Pronouns) and Dont = Including/[quantity] of which (French Relative Pronouns)

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Learn more about these related French grammar topics

  • Pronom relatif

Examples and resources

J'ai rencontré cet acteur dont le nom me dit quelque chose...I met this actor whose name rings a bell ...Les enfants, dont je connais la maman, sont bien élevés.The children, whose mum I know, are well behaved.Les enfants, de qui je connais la maman, sont bien élevés.The children, whose mum I know, are well behaved.Une fille dont le frère travaillait avec moi...A girl whose brother used to work with me ...Tu as jeté la chaussure dont le talon est cassé.You threw away the shoe with the broken heel [lit. whose heel is broken].La maison, dont j'ai réparé le toit, est maintenant parfaite.The house, which I fixed the roof of [lit. whose roof I fixed], is now perfect.François, dont j'ai rencontré la femme le mois dernier.François, whose wife I met last month. Kwizbot, a friendly bot Getting that for you now...

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