# The relative quien(es): people only

> id: grammar.pronouns.relative-quien · category: grammar · depth: standard · levels: B1 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Quien/quienes refers only to people, mainly after prepositions (la persona con quien hablé) and in non-restrictive clauses.

Quien (plural quienes) is a relative pronoun used only for people. Its main home is after a preposition: el socio de quien te hablé, la persona a quien llamaste, los clientes con quienes trabajamos. It agrees in number but not gender.

In subject position it appears in two cases: non-restrictive clauses set off by commas (mi hermano, quien vive en Francia, viene en julio) and proverb-like generic statements (quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta; quien termina, avisa, 'whoever finishes, let me know').

For a restrictive subject clause, though, Spanish uses que, not quien: la persona que llamó (not *la persona quien llamó). So after a preposition or a comma → quien is natural; directly defining a person as subject → que.

## Examples
- Es la persona en quien más confío. — She's the person I trust most.
- Quien termina primero, avisa. — Whoever finishes first, say so.
- El profesor con quien estudié ahora vive en Asunción. — The teacher I studied with now lives in Asunción.

Related: grammar.pronouns.relative-que, grammar.pronouns.relative-el-que-el-cual

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