French language Q&A Forum

This question is not re the use of qui(subject) vs que(object) in relative clauses.

It is the concept as the lesson stated of  "If it refers to the whole part of the sentence, the whole idea, then it will be ce que/ce qui."

The examples in the lesson are pretty straightforward. 

But does the grammar rule "If it refers to a noun (expressed before), then you will use que/qui...TRUMP the 'concept' guidance.

In the sentence,"the oil,which was supposed to burn for a day, burned for eight days. ** Note the commas please **.  The 'which' clause is not really further describing the oil. It is not similar to "the oil which(that) I used". It is pertinent to the entire miraculous situation/idea . What was incredible was that the oil burned for eight days.. nothing about the OIL itself was incredible.

Even in writing this question, the  thought process gets tangled up between grammar rules and context. And here the context seem to defy the grammar rules.

Elle m'en donne quatre toutes les semaines.  Is said to be the correct translation of She gives me four every week.  Why is it that the "of them" is understood in English but not in French?  Maybe I'm being difficult, but it would seem that the "of them" should be clear either from the preceding information or just clear to whoever is hearing the phrase.  Please clarify -- is this another French idiosyncrasy??? 

You really need to get some kind of speed adjustment to these "beginners" exercises I am get frustrated with them. Lines like: "Il y a aussi des nuages noirs dans le ciel" and "donc je pense qu'un orage se prépare" and just too fast. I was feeling happy with myself until I got to the second part and the only reason why I couldn't get them was because of speed!

And yes I will log this with support again.

Thank you