RELATIVE PRONOUNS

Definition:

Relative pronouns and relative adverbs introduce relative clauses.

'Who' - 'whose' - 'whom' - 'that' and 'which' - are relative pronouns.

There is often confusion about the use of who, whose, whom, that, which or where.

1.       We use who when referring to people or when we want to know the person.

Examples:

The person who answered the phone was very helpful.

Who ate all the chocolates?

2.       We use which to refer to a thing or an idea, and to ask about choices.

Examples:

My car, which is 20 years old, isn't worth much.

Which size would you like, small, medium or large?

3.       We use that for both a person and a thing/idea. It should be noted, however, that who is preferred when referring to a particular person. When that is used it usually refers to classes or types of people.

Examples:

This is the style that I want to use.

The car that belongs to the company is the red one over there.

He is the kind of person that/who can be trusted.

I want to speak to the person who (not that) called me this morning.

The person who (not that) borrowed the dictionary should return it as soon as possible.

4.       Whose refers to ownership.

Examples:

Whose dictionary is this?

There's the girl whose car was stolen.

5.       Whom: When who is the object of a verb, whom can be used instead, but it is formal and rather old-fashioned. In modern speech, we use who, or we leave out the pronoun.

Examples:

To whom did you wish to speak? (formal)

Who would you like to speak to? (modern speech)

You are referring to a person who no longer works here.

The person to whom you are referring no longer works here.

The person (who) you are referring to no longer works here.

EXERCISES: