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.
Comments
I think these examples are like that:
1- A stunt person is someone who ''stands in'' for an actor during dangerous scenes. Defined
2- A computer-graphics supervisor who needs advanced technical knowledge often spends millions of dollars on computer graphics. Non-defined
3- A stagehand is the person who moves the sets of stage in a theater production. Defined
4- A movie producer who controls the budget decides how money will be spent. it is defined as well, because people do not know about this job. Am I right?
Hello Teachers
I have a question which has been puzzled me a lot.
When it it comes to the different now types, is there any difference between them? For example are common, proper, abstract collective or job titles like ''stagehand'' or ''computer-graphics supervise'' must always be defined on Non-defined? I will appreciate providing examples.
Hello Ahmed2020,
I think you're a little confused with the terminology here. Defining and non-defining in the context of this page refer to relative clauses, not to nouns. They describe particular grammatical constructions:
> defining relative clauses identify the particular item being described (more here)
> non-defining relative clauses give extra, non-essential information about the item being described (more here)
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello. I'm not clear which of these two sentences is dramatically correct.
1. The works that involve person-to-person interactions...
2. The works that involves person-to-person interactions...
Thank for your explanation in advance.
Hello Nguyen Quoc Cuong
The first one is grammatically correct: the verb 'involve' agrees with the plural noun 'works'. In 2, 'involves' would agree with the subject 'work', but not 'works'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi, how would you combine these sentences with relative pronouns?
1. Look at that old school. I used to go there.
2. These earrings are lovely. My sister bought them for me.
Thank you!
Hello NisaMsaraa
You could say:
1. Look at the old school that I used to go to.
2. The earrings my sister bought for me are lovely.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
how would you change these into a sentence with relative pronouns?
The person wasn´t Michael. You met him.
I can´t remember the hotel in which we stayed.
Thankssss!
Hello Tamigorositt,
The sentences in the first example can be joined with who or that:
You could omit the relative pronoun:
Your second example can be rewritten with a relative adverb, not a relative pronoun:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
How would you change these into a sentence with relative pronouns?
-Micheal announced the results. He had a really loud voice.
-The form with the best results won a cup. The cup was presented by Mr. Cadogan.
Thanks!
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