French language Q&A Forum

Hi,

I have a question regarding "lequel"...

I still dont get when to use "que" and "lequel".....

There is one sentence i found from online news article and the use of "lequel" in it confuses me..

Le racisme, c'est l'idée selon laquelle l'espèce humaine serait composée de plusieurs races différentes.

It is literally the first sentence of the article and so nothing has been mentioned before that sentence. Regardless the "laquelle" has been used along with "selon", preposition. Also, when I translate it based on a dictionary, it means "according to which". It sounds so weird if i apply it onto the whole sentence. 

So, my questions are.......

1. is it necessary to use "selon laquelle or can I simply use "que" instead? (Like "c'est l'idée QUE l'espèce humaine serait....")

2. And just like "dans lequel" which can simply translate as "where(=où)", does "selon lequel" also mean something simple other than its dictionary meaning, "according to which"? 

I would appreciate for any reply!

 In the sentence "On a visite le Mont St Michel qui nous a laisses ......", shouldn't it be ".....qui nous a laisse   " referring to Mont St Michel?

Also, I think "....on est alles..." should be "...on est alle...", "on est parti..." should be "on est parti...", etc.?

"Cette maison est bien."

Am I correct in thinking that, in this case, "bien" is describing the house and is therefore an adjective?

If this is true, then "bien" can be an adjective as well as an adverb.

Please could you tell how to know when to  use "bien" or "bon" as an adjective.

In other words, why did the question not read "Cette maison est bonne" ?

For the sentence "je joue au beach volley avec Lydia et notre équipe gagne", why is "gagner" take the form of "gagne" instead of "gagnons"? I would think since it is "our team winning" it would be "notre équipe gagnons", but I think I am missing something here!