Relative pronouns and relative clauses

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 that Jack built. (that is the object of built)

Relative pronouns 1

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Relative pronouns 2

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Be careful!

The relative pronoun is the subject/object of the relative clause, so we do not repeat the subject/object:

Marie Curie is the woman who she discovered radium.
(who is the subject of discovered, so we don't need she)

This is the house that Jack built it.
(that is the object of built, so we don't need it)

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:

Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
(NOT Lord Thompson, that is 76, has just retired.)

and we cannot leave out the pronoun:

We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy.
(NOT We had fish and chips, I always enjoy.)

Relative pronouns 3

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Relative pronouns 4

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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

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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

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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.

 

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Submitted by Setsukoisalive on Thu, 12/05/2022 - 10:13

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Hello,
I'm confused whether this sentence is correct or not.
"It was my husband who broke the car door."
Is she have two husband If not then why there's no comma.

Hello Setsukoisalive,

Yes, this sentence is correct and is a good example of a cleft sentence.

Are you asking why there is not a comma between 'husband' and 'who'? Although there might be a comma in this position in some languages, in English there is not.

Unless there is some specific situation referred to here, I think most people would assume there is just one husband in this sentence. If this person had more than one husband, it would probably be something like 'It was one of my husbands who broke the door'.

Hope this helps.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Ahmed Imam on Tue, 12/04/2022 - 19:28

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Hello. Could you please help me choose the correct pronoun and why?
- At the corner, there is a supermarket .......... I always buy my things
from.
a- where b- which c- no word d- b & c
Thank you.

Hi Ahmed Imam,

It should be where, because it introduces a clause that shows an action that takes place in the supermarket. It would be which if the relative clause adds description about the supermarket, e.g. There is a supermarket which is very big. / There is a supermarket which I like.

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello again. I think that "where", "which" and "no word" are correct. I think that we can say:
- I always buy my things from there.
- I always buy my things from it.
- I always buy my things there.
Please help me. Thank you.

Hi Ahmed Imam,

Oh yes! I misread the original sentence, and I didn't see "from" at the end of it. Yes, I agree - I think all options are correct.

Best regards,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by ftmh.a1382 on Mon, 04/04/2022 - 13:01

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hello, thank you for your useful information
and can we leave out the noun before where?
for example:
Do you remember The place where we caught the train?
in this example can we say: "do you remember where we caught the train?"

Submitted by Brianchen55688 on Mon, 04/04/2022 - 03:34

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Hello there,

Thank you for this informative grammar lesson.
I have learnt a lot from it.

I was wondering if you could clarify my confusion over the order of relative clauses in some particular situations.

I'd like to ask a question from the exercise of relative pronouns 1.

Meryl Streep is the famous person (who/that/0) I'd most like to meet.

What I have learnt about relative clauses is that they always modify the nearest noun/pronoun.

In the case above, the nearest noun is "person" while the one I'd like to meet should be Meryl Streep.

So I thought the correct answer might be "Meryl Streep, who I'd like to meet, is the famous person"

Could you help clarify my understanding or explain under what condition relative clauses don't necessarily modify the nearest noun?

I look forward to hearing from you
Best

Brian

Hello Brian,

I'm afraid that it's not true that relative pronouns always refer to the noun or pronoun that comes before them. If you change the word 'always' to 'often', then I think the rule works, but there are definitely many different kinds of sentences where the relative pronoun does not immediately follow what it refers to.

Another sentence where this is not true is 'I saw a film last night that you might like'. In this case, it doesn't make any sense for 'that you might like' to refer to 'last night' and so it's generally understood that it refers to 'a film'. What the relative clause refers to is generally going to be what makes the most sense.

In general, it would probably be better for this last sentence to be 'You might like the film (that) I saw last night' -- in this case, of course, the relative clause comes right after its antecedent (the noun that it refers to). If I were writing, I'd probably use this last sentence because it's clearer, but especially when people are speaking they might say something like 'I saw a film last night that you might like', and this is perfectly correct.

It's also correct to say 'Meryl Streep, who I'd like to meet, is a famous person', but it's slightly different. This sentence probably announces a new topic, but the sentence in Task 1 is more appropriate as the answer to a question such as 'What famous person would you like to meet?'

Does that help you make more sense of it?

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Vishwjeet.Chauhan on Sun, 27/02/2022 - 20:43

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Hi
Which noun is being described by the relative clause in the following sentences?

1. I met Rebecca in town yesterday, which was a nice surprise.
2. Yesterday, I met Rebecca in town, which was a nice surprise.
3. Yesterday, I met Rebecca in town, which was so congested.
4. Yesterday, I met Rebecca, who is my childhood friend, in town.
5. Yesterday, I met Rebecca in town, who is my childhood friend.
6. I had an uncle in the city, who I inherited a bit of money from.
7. I had an uncle in the city, which is famous for its restaurants.
8. The guards of the royals, xyz (how can I modify guards and how can I modify royals in this sentence)

Hi Vishwjeet.Chauhan,

We try not to answer questions like this, or we might end up doing people's homework for them :) But if you have a question about any of the explanation or exercises on the page above, do let us know.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by sourabhg on Wed, 01/12/2021 - 14:46

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I was interested in whom would take over as project manager.
Or
I was interested in who would take over as project manager

Hello souragbhg,

'Who' is correct here. The pronoun is the subject in the relative clause and is not the object of the preposition 'in'; the object of the preposition is the whole relative clause.

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by hanluna on Wed, 24/11/2021 - 16:49

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Hello!
I was asked to combine these sentences as one
- My friend plays the guitar. He has just released a CD.
I rewrote them as 'My friend who has just released a CD plays the guitar.'
However, my teacher said that they should be rewritten as 'My friend who plays the guitar has just released a CD.'

Is there any difference between these two sentences? Is my sentence grammatically correct?

Thank you.

Hello hanluna,

Your sentence is grammatically correct and both sentences mean essentially the same thing, but there is a difference between your sentence and your teacher's.

In 'My friend who has just released a CD plays the guitar', the new or important information is that your friend plays the guitar; 'who has just released a CD' tells us which of your friends you are talking about.

In 'My friend who plays the guitar has just released a CD', the new or important information is that your friend has just released a CD; 'who plays the guitar' tells us which of your friends you are talking about.

It's not that your sentence is impossible, but in general it seems more likely that the purpose of a sentence like this is to communicate the release of a CD.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Ahmed Hassan on Fri, 22/10/2021 - 20:07

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Hello Teachers
this sentence "People who have a lot of money are happy"
can we reduce it to:
"people having a lot of money are happy" or "People with a lot of money are happy"?

Hello Ahmed Hassan,

You can certainly use 'with a lot of money' here. I don't think 'having' works, however. The reason is that 'having' would suggest a reduction from 'who are having', which would indicate a temporary state rather than a general situation.

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Ahmed Hassan on Thu, 14/10/2021 - 00:37

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Hello Teachers
1- Can we write this sentence " What's the name of the lady that is wearing the blue dress?" like this "What's the name of the lady wearing the blue dress?". I mean without 'that' and 'is'?
2-what did we leave out in these sentences "I like watching my son play football" and "I saw a dog chasing a cat"?
Thanks a lot.

Hello Ahmed Hassan,

Yes, that first sentence is correct. We call this a reduced relative clause -- the full relative clause is 'that is wearing the blue dress'.

The other two sentences you ask about don't have reduced relative clauses. In the first sentence, 'watching' is a gerund, which is basically the noun form of verb. Here, 'watching my son play football' is all the object of 'I like'.

In the other sentence the present participle 'chasing' is used as part of the object ('a dog') of a verb of perception ('saw'). The objects of verbs of perception (e.g. 'see', 'hear', 'listen', etc.), can be followed by a bare infinitive (e.g. 'I saw a dog chase a cat') or a present participle (e.g. 'I saw a dog chasing a cat'). They mostly mean the same thing, but the present participle adds special emphasis to the moment, i.e. to the idea that I was there in that moment watching the action as it happened.

I hope this helps you make sense of these forms.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Thanks a lot, Teacher Kirk.
but what about this sentence "I have three brothers, one of them is a pilot" is it correct to use "them" instead of "whom".
Thanks again.

Hello Ahmed Hassan,

Although people might say the sentence with 'them', or you might even find it in a novel, strictly speaking it is not correct. This is because it's not correct to join two independent clauses (here 'I have three brothers' and 'One of them is a pilot') with a comma; this is called a comma splice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_splice).

In contrast, 'I have three brothers, one of whom is a pilot' is correct because 'one of whom is a pilot' is a relative clause.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Sokhom on Sun, 19/09/2021 - 11:39

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Hello, Sir! Could you please tell me if the two sentences are correct: 1. I have two brothers who is a teacher and a doctor. 2. I have two brothers who are a teacher and a doctor. Thank you so much for your time. Best Wishes!

Hi Sokhom,

The second one is the correct one :)

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Sokhom on Sun, 05/09/2021 - 10:33

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Hello, team! I was wondering if 'what I see' is a relative clause (a free relative clause) or a noun clause? e.g. I like what I see. e.g. Where she lives is a mystery. (Is 'where she lives' a relative clause or noun clause?) 2. Could I write the sentence as below? e.g. The town where I live in is quiet and peaceful. You explanation is a big help for me. Best Wishes!

Hi Sokhom,

1. what I see and where she lives are both free relative clauses and noun clauses. (A couple of notes: the information on this page above is all about bound relative clauses, not free ones; and different grammar traditions use different terms.)

2. No, it should be one of these options:

  • The town (that/which) I live in is quiet ...
  • The town where I live is quiet ...

As a relative pronoun, where already includes the meaning of 'in', in relation to the noun. You can think of it as substitutable with 'in which' (i.e. The town in which I live / The town which I live in).

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Sokhom on Tue, 07/09/2021 - 12:55

In reply to by Jonathan R

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Thank you very much for your precise explanation. :) I wanted to know if the two sentences are equivalent. e.g. Where she lives is a mystery. e.g. The place where she lives is a mystery. So, if I separate the sentence 'where she lives is a mystery' into 2 clauses, I get: 1. Independent clause: ('the place') which is fused + is a mystery 2. Dependent clause: where she lives (or which she lives in) Is it right to separate the clauses like like those above? Thank you for your time. Best Wishes!

Hi Sokhom,

The two sentences are equivalent in meaning. But they are structurally different.

I think your analysis is right for the second example. But in example 1, is a mystery can't be an independent clause (because it's not a complete sentence if it stands alone). So, I understand the whole of example 1 as a single independent clause. 

Only example 1 has a fused relative clause. 'Fused' means that the relative clause functions as a noun (in contrast, in example 2, it functions as an adjective describing the noun place).

Best wishes also to you!

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Sokhom on Thu, 09/09/2021 - 12:36

In reply to by Jonathan R

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Thank you very much for your time and explanation. I still doubt the term 'a free relative clause' and 'a noun clause'. 1. Where she lives is a mystery. + independent clause: the place is a mystery (the subject of the clause is 'the place' which is fused). + dependent clause: 'which she lives in' is a bound relative clause which functions as an adjective. I think that if I separate like this, "where she lives" is a free relative clause. 2. Where she lives is a mystery. + independent clause: Where she lives is a mystery + Dependent clause: where she lives (a noun clause which functions as subject). So, "where she lives" is a noun clause, not 'a relative clause' because 'an adjectival (a free relative clause' should not be functioned as a subject of a sentence. Therefore, personally whether a clause is 'a free relative clause' or 'a noun clause' depends on how one separates the sentence. I wanted to know if I was right or wrong. Best Wishes!

Hi Sokhom,

For 1, I think the example sentence may be wrong?

For 2, 'where she lives' is a relative clause - it's a free relative clause. It is also a noun clause.

For clarification, here are the two types of relative clause:

  • free/fused (function as nouns, e.g. Where she lives is a mystery.)
  • bound (function as adjectives, e.g. The place where she lives is a mystery.)

I should point out that we don't actually use the terms 'free'/'bound' here on this website. (As I mentioned in my first message, there are different terms belonging to different analytical traditions.) It might be better to follow up with some resources which do use those terms and may go into more depth than we can here - for example, you might find this page useful. I hope it helps :)

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Ahmed Imam on Thu, 08/07/2021 - 07:47

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Hello. Could you please help me? Which one is correct or both are? Why? 1- There is a lot of beer in the fridge but there isn't much of which I like. 2- There is a lot of beer in the fridge but there isn't much that I like. Thank you.

Hi Ahmed Imam,

This is a slightly odd situation because 'beer' is used an uncount noun, but the point seems to be that there are different kinds of beer. When distinguishing between different brands or types of beer, we often use it as a count noun (e.g. 'There are lots of different beers but none that I like').

1 is not correct: you could say 'much of what I like' or 'much of the kind I like' or 'much of the ones I like', but not 'much of which I like'. 2 is OK I suppose, but as I explained earlier, I'd probably use the count noun form here.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Ahmed Imam on Sat, 29/05/2021 - 14:11

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Hello. Could you help me choose the correct answer? - Much (that - which) your father has said shows that he is angry. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

I'd say 'that' instead of 'which', but I'm not sure I'd say that 'which' is wrong. 

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello teacher KirK, in this case should we say, much of that/which your father has said shows that he is angry. I mean should we put the preposition 'of' before that/which? Thanks.

Hello Maahir,

If you use 'of', then actually you have to use both 'that' and 'which'! In other words, with 'of', the correct sentence is 'Much of that which he said ...' In this case, 'that' is not a relative pronoun but a pronoun, and 'which' is the relative pronoun.

It might be easier to think of the sentence with a noun instead of the pronoun 'that', for example 'Many of the stories which he told ...'

In the case of 'Much that (or 'Much which') he said ...', both 'that' and 'which' are relative pronouns.

Hope that makes sense.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Ahmed Imam on Tue, 04/05/2021 - 10:14

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Hello. Which relative is correct in the following sentence? Why? 1- This is the best which he can do for you. 2- This is the best that he can do for you. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

Although both are grammatically possible, I think that is the natural choice here. We tend not to use who or which in constructions such as this, where the noun is omitted (the best thing).

 

That said, I think the majority of speakers would omit the relative pronoun altogether: This is the best he can do for you.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Ahmed Imam on Mon, 26/04/2021 - 19:23

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Hello. Is the following sentence correct? I can't understand it. What is its structure? How can I divide it into 2 simple sentences? "That the rate of educated women has doubled since 1970s is related to their education." Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

That sentence is a little odd. I'd suggest changing the beginning to 'The fact that the rate ...'. That would make it grammatically correct, but the logic appears circular to me.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by hoando124 on Wed, 24/03/2021 - 10:25

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Hello! I've been thinking about this sentence a lot: "Lily and her dogs, ... go out for a walk everyday, haven't had time to do that recently. It's supposed to be a "that" to be filled in the blank if it was a defining relative clause. However, it's a non-defining one thus a "that" cannot be used here. So please help me with this. Thank you so much!
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Submitted by Jonathan R on Thu, 25/03/2021 - 13:33

In reply to by hoando124

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Hi hoando124,

I would use who here, as Lily is a person. :)

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Isa H. Sedeto on Tue, 16/02/2021 - 13:31

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Hello! How can we differenciate on which from whose? Thanks!
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Submitted by Kirk Moore on Wed, 17/02/2021 - 07:13

In reply to by Isa H. Sedeto

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Hello Isa,

'whose' always includes the idea of possession, and usually the possessor is a person, animal or organisation (which is composed of people).

'which', on the other hand, refers to an object or idea, but doesn't include the idea of possession or a person that possesses something.

Does that help? If you have a specific sentence you would like to ask us about, please feel free to do that.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

 

Submitted by lmho on Thu, 04/02/2021 - 15:37

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Hello, thanks for the content! I don't know whether this has been stated before: I just wanted to let you know that Lagos isn't the capital of Nigeria (task 3).
Profile picture for user Kirk Moore

Submitted by Kirk Moore on Fri, 05/02/2021 - 08:39

In reply to by lmho

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Hello Imho,

Thanks very much for telling us about this mistake! I've just fixed it, though it may take a few hours for the change to appear on the site.

Best wishes,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by ClaireUB78 on Fri, 15/01/2021 - 09:27

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Hello Peter M. Thank you very much for clarifying that for me!

Submitted by ClaireUB78 on Wed, 13/01/2021 - 11:31

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Hello, I am doing activities using relative pronouns and linking expressions. There is an exercise that I have to tick the ones that are correct and replace the relative pronoun in those that are wrong. "It was not until I was seventeen that I started writing down all what happened to me every day." I know that "what happened" is wrong and I should replace it with "that happened" but I´m not sure why, it just sounds right to me. I mean why can´t it be replaced with "which" as we use that relative pronoun for things also. Please help.
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Submitted by Peter M. on Thu, 14/01/2021 - 08:12

In reply to by ClaireUB78

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Hello ClaireUB78,

'What' is not used in relative clauses in English. You can use the relative pronouns who (whom), which and that.

After 'all' we use that rather than who or which in modern English. The use of who or which is not ungrammatical but it sounds archaic to the modern ear.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team