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When que is used as the object of a preposition, the definite article is added to it, and the resulting form (el que) inflects for number and gender, resulting in the forms el que, la que, los que, las que and the neuter lo que. Unlike in English, the preposition must go right before the relative pronoun "which" or "whom":
Mi coche es más grande que el tuyo = "My car is bigger than yours" Tu casa tiene más cuartos que la suya = "Your house has more rooms than his/hers/yours/theirs" Estos libros son más interesantes que los vuestros = "These books are more interesting than yours [pl.]" Esas camisas son más pequeñas que las nuestras = "Those shirts are smaller ...
The ambiguity that this causes (especially considering that su(s) already covers "his", "her", "its" and "their") can be alleviated by treating usted(es) as a noun and thereby saying la casa de ustedes instead of su casa. It is also possible to disambiguate by saying la casa de él or la casa de ella, etc. Dialectal variation:
It's also combined with the relative pronouns que and cual to form relative clauses, such as lo que dices, lo cual es cierto, and can also be followed by de, e.g. lo de Juan está aquí, lo de que estoy enfermo no es cierto. Bello also notes that words such as nada, poco, algo, and mucho can be used as neuters in some contexts.
By convention, the masculine form is treated as the lemma (that is, the form listed in dictionaries) and the feminine form as the marked form. [7] For nouns of this class with the masculine form ending in -o, the feminine form typically replaces the -o with -a. For example, el abuelo 'grandfather' becomes la abuela 'grandmother'.
Activists against sexism in language are also concerned about words whose feminine form has a different (usually less prestigious) meaning: An ambiguous case is "secretary": a secretaria is an attendant for her boss or a typist, usually female, while a secretario is a high-rank position—as in secretario general del partido comunista, "secretary general of the communist party"—usually held ...
Te gusta y me gusta but never *Te y me gusta = "You and I like him" (lit. "He pleases you and me") – can also be phrased with a single plural clitic as A ti y a mí nos gusta (i.e. "You and I, we like him"). Lo vi y te vi but never *Lo y te vi = "I saw him and you"
In the case of grande, which is the only apocopic adjective with regular comparative and superlative forms (más grande and el más grande, respectively), the comparative and superlative apocopate in the same manner as the positive: la más gran casa but la casa más grande, el más gran coche de los dos but el coche más grande de los dos, etc