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quien

who; whom

pronoun KYEN Common

Also means

whoever; the one who

Usage Note

Quien (plural quienes) refers only to people, unlike que, which can refer to things. Without an accent it is a relative pronoun, used chiefly after a preposition (la persona con quien hablo 'the person I am speaking with'); the accented quién is the interrogative 'who?'. The proverb quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta ('he who grasps much, holds little') shows the generic 'whoever' use.

Examples

"¿Sabes quién llamó?"

Natural Translation

Do you know who called?

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