Les pronoms relatifs

On distingue deux types de propositions relatives :

 déterminative  elle définit l'objet dont elle parle,
elle est essentielle		  the man who died was his brother
non-déterminative  elle apporte une précision accessoire,
elle est limitative		 Smith, whom she did not know, had just arrived
(plus souvent après une virgule,
avec that ou ø)

 

 Fonction  Antécédent animé Antécédent inanimé
Sujet who
the man who died was his brother		 which(that)
He bought a hat which was funny
C.O.D. who(m) (that) (ø)
The woman (whom) he met there was German

 which (that)(ø)
The paper ø he bought is on the table
C.O.I. who(m) (that) (ø)... préposition
préposition + whom
The man ø he thought of was not selfish		 which (that)(ø)... préposition
préposition + which
I lost the paper on which I had written his number
C. du nom (possesion) whose
The man whose car is parked across the street is Mr Jones
(autre que possession) that / ø
The man (that) you're talking about is Mr Jones		 (possesion) whose
the house whose blinds are down is for sale
(autre que possession) that / ø

The house (that) they bought is Victorian

On peut omettre le relatif COD et COI quand il introduit un proposition relative définissante (qui limite le sens de l'antécédent)

The man ø he was speaking to (définit 'man') was American
She started speaking with Smith, whom she did not know (complément d'information)

On emploie plus volontiers 'that' après...

  • un pronom indéfini représentant un inanimé
  • un superlatif
  • the next, the one, the only+nom
 Temps : when

  The time when families had lunch together is gone
 Lieu : where

 I know a place where you can get a free haircut
 Cause : why

 He did not mention the reason why he resigned
 what est un relatif sans antécédent,
il annonce ce qui va suivre

 What I need is a nice cup of tea
 which reprend le début d'une phrase

 he refused my help, which wasn't surprising

Place de la préposition dans la relative

Devant le relatif : Nantua is a town about which I know nothing

Après le verbe (dans une définissante, le relatif peut être sous entendu) : Nantua is a town I know nothing about

Traduction de 'dont'

 

s'il est c. du nom whose
the people whose cars were damaged complained

s'il est c. de verbe

 ø
The woman I told you about (c. de tell)
s'il est c. d'adjectif ø
the band I'm crazy about.... (c. de crazy)

Exercices en ligne

which ou what - relatives définissantes

relatives non définissantes

Les équivalents des modaux expriment une simple constatation, alors que les modaux expriment toujours un jugement subjectif

Pour exprimer Substitut (+ BV) équivalent de...
capacité be able to
ex: Will he be able to do it?

 can
nécessité / obligation have to
ex: Do you really have to shout?

 must
absence de nécessité / d'obligation
don't have to
ex: You don't have to shout

contrainte ought to
ex :You ought to make up your mind now 		should
permission be allowed to
ex : you are not allowed to go out tonight 		can / may
 prédiction / obligation be to
ex : they are to arrive tonight
ex : you're not to go

  will

must
habitude dans le passé : used to

ex : he used to sleep a lot

 would

CAS PARTICULIER DE NEED ET DARE

Ce ne sont pas vraiment des substituts, mais des verbes au comportement particulier .

Ils peuvent se construire normalement ou comme des modaux.

NEED

sens exemple
avoir besoin He needs help, but he doesn't need mine.
He needs to go to the bank
The car needs repairing
ce n'est pas nécesssaire You needn't worry about it
ce n'était pas nécessaire He needn't have spent the night waiting up.

DARE

sens exemple
oser
He doesn't dare to ask.
He daren't speak
indignation How dare he interrupt me!
requête très polie Dare I ask?