Level: beginner
The relative pronouns are:
| Subject | Object | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| who | who/whom | whose |
| which | which | whose |
| that | that | - |
We use relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses. Relative clauses tell us more about people and things:
Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
This is the house which Jack built.
Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.
We use:
- who and whom for people
- which for things
- that for people or things.
Two kinds of relative clause
There are two kinds of relative clause:
1. We use relative clauses to make clear which person or thing we are talking about:
Marie Curie is the woman who discovered radium.
This is the house which Jack built.
In this kind of relative clause, we can use that instead of who or which:
Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.
This is the house that Jack built.
We can leave out the pronoun if it is the object of the relative clause:
This is the house
thatJack built. (that is the object of built)
- Relative pronouns 1
- Relative pronouns 2
| Be careful! |
|---|
|
The relative pronoun is the subject/object of the relative clause, so we do not repeat the subject/object:
|
2. We also use relative clauses to give more information about a person, thing or situation:
Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy.
I met Rebecca in town yesterday, which was a nice surprise.
With this kind of relative clause, we use commas (,) to separate it from the rest of the sentence.
| Be careful! |
|---|
|
In this kind of relative clause, we cannot use that:
and we cannot leave out the pronoun: We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy. |
- Relative pronouns 3
- Relative pronouns 4
Level: intermediate
whose and whom
We use whose as the possessive form of who:
This is George, whose brother went to school with me.
We sometimes use whom as the object of a verb or preposition:
This is George, whom you met at our house last year.
(whom is the object of met)This is George’s brother, with whom I went to school.
(whom is the object of with)
but nowadays we normally use who:
This is George, who you met at our house last year.
This is George’s brother, who I went to school with.
- Relative pronouns 5
Relative pronouns with prepositions
When who(m) or which have a preposition, the preposition can come at the beginning of the clause:
I had an uncle in Germany, from who(m) I inherited a bit of money.
We bought a chainsaw, with which we cut up all the wood.
or at the end of the clause:
I had an uncle in Germany, who(m) I inherited a bit of money from.
We bought a chainsaw, which we cut all the wood up with.
But when that has a preposition, the preposition always comes at the end:
I didn't know the uncle that I inherited the money from.
We can't find the chainsaw that we cut all the wood up with.
- Relative pronouns 6
when and where
We can use when with times and where with places to make it clear which time or place we are talking about:
England won the World Cup in 1966. It was the year when we got married.
I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day when the tsunami happened.Do you remember the place where we caught the train?
Stratford-upon-Avon is the town where Shakespeare was born.
We can leave out when:
England won the World Cup in 1966. It was the year we got married.
I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day the tsunami happened.
We often use quantifiers and numbers with relative pronouns:
| all of which/whom | most of which/whom | many of which/whom |
| lots of which/whom | a few of which/whom | none of which/whom |
| one of which/whom | two of which/whom | etc. |
She has three brothers, two of whom are in the army.
I read three books last week, one of which I really enjoyed.
There were some good programmes on the radio, none of which I listened to.
Hi Ken,
The list of roles in your second link is fine. Sometimes an adverbial function is attributed, but the item is then a relative adverb rather than a relative pronoun.
Relative pronouns can act as the subject (not subject complement) of the relative clause.
If you have a particular example in mind we'll be happy to comment on it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Ken,
The sentence is correct. 'That' is a relative pronoun introducing a defining relative clause. You could replace 'that' with 'who'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kakakevin,
We can use both 'that' and 'which' in defining relative clauses, but we cannot use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses.
Your example sentence contains a defining relative clause and so both 'that' and 'which' are possible; neither is incorrect.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amirfd,
Both are possible here. Which you choose is a question of preference and context.
Generally, we don't provide answers to questions from elsewhere like this one. If we did, then we would end up doing people's homework and tests for them!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi omarmohamed99,
'which' is correct because it refers to the entire phrase before the comma. 'that' isn't used to refer to a situation or action in this way.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lady Olenna,
Both forms are possible, with a small shift in meaning.
The singular verb here tells us that it is Tyrion who belongs to this group: he is one of the characters of the book and he belongs to this category.
The plural verb here tells us that there are many characters who are in this category and Tyrion is one of them: there are a number of characters who belong to this category and Tyrion is one of them.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
For animals we use which or that, not who.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi mitykg,
It appears that part of the explanation is missing from this page, which of course makes it more difficult to do the exercise correctly. I'm sorry about that and will look into fixing it.
In the meantime, I'll explain these for you. In the first one, only 'which' is correct because 'which' is used to refer to a situation or action -- here it refers to the man's tearing up of the photograph.
In the second one, only 'whom' is correct because it refers to people and because the relative pronoun in the object of the pronoun 'of'.
The third one is similar to the second one, except that the relative pronoun refers to a thing (a book). The relative pronoun is the object of the preposition 'of' and so only 'which' is correct, because only 'which' and 'whom' are used as objects of prepositions.
I hope this clarifies it for you.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello shivamgetz,
'which' can be used in both defining and non-defining relative clauses, whereas 'that' is used only in defining relative clauses. All three of the sentences you ask about have defining relative clauses, so you could indeed use 'which' instead (though note there should be no comma in the first sentence).
'which' can be used to refer to both singular and plural antecedents. I'm not sure if that's what you were asking -- if not, please give an example of what you mean.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Akash,
No, I'm afraid it is not. The antecedent of 'who' cannot be 'essays', which is what the grammar of the sentence indicates. You could perhaps say something like 'My father likes Elliot's essays because he was a master critic and reputed grammarian'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lutfullo,
That sentence is not quite correct. There are two ways to say this:
You need to include the commas.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Timmosky,
Yes, all of them are correct, though please note that 'whom' is quite uncommon in speaking nowadays. Most of the time, most people would use 'who' in your third sentence instead of 'whom'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello abru,
Both 'that' or 'which' are correct here because the relative clause in this sentence is a defining relative clause, not a non-defining relative clause. I'd suggest you read through the two pages I linked to – this should clear up the matter.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team