"The girl buys the dress that she wants."
Translation:La fille achète la robe qu'elle veut.
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No, you don't need "ce", because you can directly link "robe" with "que/qu'
Am i understanding the que vs. Qui issue here: "Il sait que le livre qui est sur la table appartient à Paul"
The first que simple 'introduces' further information about some1/thing and the 2nd qui is used because "the book" is the object of the second part of the sentance?
So "the girl buys the dress THAT she wants" is que because it simply introduces extra info again here?
You understood correctly, but the rule is simpler:
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he knows (that) the book is there = il sait que le livre est là: "que" is a conjunction, linking main clause "he knows/il sait" and subordinate clause "the book is there/le livre est là" - in English, you can drop it; in French, you can't.
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he knows the book that is on the table = il connaît le livre qui est sur la table: "qui" is a relative pronoun, it represents "book/livre" (= its antecedent) in the relative clause and it is subject of "is/est".
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he knows the book that I like = il connaît le livre que j'aime: "que" is a relative pronoun, it represents "book/livre" (= its antecedent) in the relative clause and it is direct object of "like" (subject is "I/je").
A few details here
thank you for the reply I hadn't realised que was acting as a conjunction here! also I had meant to write that when I had used qui it was because the book was the SUBJECT of the sentence but wrote object by mistake! thanks for the link I will check it out.
Why can't I say "jeune fille" instead of just "fille" The meaning is the same and differentiates it from "daughter."
Une jeune fille is a young woman.
une fille is generic to all girls from babys to young adults.
The natural pronunciation of "que" is KUH. When "que" is placed before a word starting with a vowel sound, there would a vowel sound conflict with the sound UH. As a consequence, "que" is elided (drop the -e and replace it with an apostrophe, just to keep the K sound):
- qu'il, qu'elle, qu'on
The same applies to other little words: je, le, ne, me, te, se, de.
Here, she is probably buying the dress for herself, but "buy" is just giving cash against an object, so without any context nor any indication of whom she would offer the dress to, you should stick to the direct translation.
Here is where my Spanish knowledge slightly throws off my French learning. Dang.
In this sentence "that" is not a demonstrative pronoun meaning "the thing there" (= cela/ça).
"that" is a relative pronoun, representing "dress" and the direct object of the verb "wants".
In French, the object relative pronoun is "que", with the same nature and function as in the English sentence.
