Question about use of relative pronouns "la que" and "las que"

Question

In the third sentence, would it be correct to say: "Mi mejor amiga se apunta rápidamente a estos programas."? Does it take something away from the meaning by saying it the way I wrote it?

In the fourth sentence, would the sentence be correct if I eliminate "son las que"?

I'm not trying to take anything away from the "style" of the writing or from the grammatical importance of the use of these relative pronouns, but I just want to know if the use of these relative pronouns is more about a certain style of writing or if they are grammatically necessary.

Thank you.

Amy

Answer

Hola Amy,you can express pretty much the same thing saying "Mi mejor amiga se apunta rápidamente a estos programas.", but, yes, what we are using in our text is a different structure. Using the relative "la que..." at the beginning of the sentence emphasises the subject of the sentence bringing more attention to it:  "La que se apunta rápidamente a estos programas es mi mejor amiga."The same goes for the following sentence, adding more elements to it "... son las que..."; we could easily drop that part and shorten it, but it will lose on emphasis. I think the same happens in English. I would say, yes, it is a question of "style" and it depends on what you want to convey/emphasise in the text. I hope this helps,SaludosInma