No agreement with "qui" subject

To understand qui, you have to think about its job description. Its main role is to act as the subject of the following verb. Imagine you are at a café. You see a waiter who is very fast. You have two facts: 1. "Voilà le serveur." 2. "Le serveur est rapide." Instead of repeating "le serveur," you swap the second one for qui. Now you have: "Voilà le serveur qui est rapide."

Here is the secret: qui always does the heavy lifting. It is the one performing the action in its little part of the sentence. Whether you are talking about one person or a hundred people, qui remains qui. It is like a grammar traffic light that is always green—it just keeps the sentence moving forward without any complicated stops for gender or number changes.

1. 1Creating a sentence with qui is like a simple three-step dance. You do not need fancy footwork here.
2. 2Find the common noun in two separate thoughts (e.g., le gâteau).
3. 3Look at the second thought and identify the subject (e.g., Le gâteau est bon).
4. 4Replace that subject with qui and join the sentences together.
5. 5Example: "Je mange un gâteau. Le gâteau est au chocolat." becomes "Je mange un gâteau qui est au chocolat."

Use qui whenever the noun you are describing is the subject of the next verb. This applies to both people and things.

• Ordering Food: "Je voudrais le plat qui est épicé." (I would like the dish that is spicy.)
• Asking Directions: "Où est la rue qui mène au musée ?" (Where is the street that leads to the museum?)
• Job Interviews: "Je suis une personne qui travaille dur." (I am a person who works hard.)

In all these cases, qui is the one doing the action (being spicy, leading to the museum, working hard). If you can replace the qui with "he," "she," or "it," you know you have made the right choice.

Do not use qui if the noun is the object of the sentence. If you are saying "The book that I am reading," the subject is "I," not the book. In that case, you need que.

Also, a huge trap for beginners: do not shorten qui to qu' before a vowel. While que loves to shrink (like qu'il), qui is proud and stays full-sized. Even if the next word is arrive or est, it remains qui. Writing qu'est when you mean qui est is a classic mistake. Yes, even native speakers mess this up sometimes when they are texting too fast!

The most frequent error is trying to make qui agree with the noun. You might feel tempted to write quie for a feminine noun or quis for a plural one. Resist the urge!

• Wrong: "Les gens quis habitent ici."
• Right: "Les gens qui habitent ici."

Another mistake is the "Vowel Trap" mentioned earlier. Remember: qui + vowel = no change.

• Wrong: "L'homme qu'adore le fromage."
• Right: "L'homme qui adore le fromage."

Think of qui as being wearing a very sturdy suit of armor. Nothing—not gender, not number, not even a vowel—can make it change its shape.

People often confuse qui and que. The difference is all about the subject.

• qui + Verb: "L'homme qui parle." (The man who speaks.)
• que + Subject: "L'homme que je vois." (The man that I see.)

If there is no other subject (like je, tu, Marie) immediately after the pronoun, you almost certainly need qui. It is the missing piece of the puzzle that completes the action.