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 everyone. New here. I am struggling with a question.... I have taken this from an english book and it says one asnwer though I am not entirely sure , it´s related to the use of whom or who. The answer given by the book says WHOM, I think I get but why not WHO considering the action of wearing clothes is done by the ¨people¨. but I understand there is a preposition OF so that would be the only reason I could understand why is WHOM the answer but I am not sure..... please help. This is the exercise:
There were people at the wedding, none of ___ were wearing formal clothes.
a which b whom c who d that
Hello miss.jenny,
The correct form here is 'whom' because it directly follows a preposition. 'Whom' is disappearing from the language as time goes by but it is still always required directly after a preposition.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, dear teachers and team!
Could you please help me with the following:
I've seen the following sentences in the Longman Dictionary:
1. Miranda was sure it was one of them,but not sure which.
2. I don't know which of us was the most scared.
So, tell me please if I could substitute "which" with "who" or "whom" in these sentences ?
I'm very grateful for your valuable contribution to my knowledge and thank you very much indeed for your answer to this post!!!
Hello howtosay_,
In sentence 1 you could use 'who' as the pronoun refers to a person here.
In sentence 2 you could also use 'who', for the same reason.
'Whom' is not correct in either sentence. Just as we say 'Do you know who it was?' (not whom), so in sentence 1 we would not use 'whom'. In sentence 2 'which' is the subject of the verb ('which was the most scared'), so 'whom' is not possible.
'Whom' is quite unusual in modern English apart from when it directly follows a preposition (for whom, to whom, with whom etc).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi, how is it with relative clauses and formality? Is it right that THAT is used in informal settings mainly and relative clauses with WHICH are more formal? If yes, is the explanation that before THAT we can’t use a preposition? When we use a prepostion before WHICH it is more formal so there would be “a clash” when the preposition would be used at the end of the sentence. Thanks. Jana
Hello Jana,
I don't think there's a strong correlation between formality and the choice of that or which/who. That said, I think 'that' is relatively more common in speech but it is not particularly informal.
Using prepositions before relative pronouns is generally quite a formal style but I wouldn't search for a deeper reason along the lines you suggest - I think this would be reading too much into the structures. There are many ways of showing formality in English and changing the word order is quite a common one. For example:
Here we change the words order and use inversion to create a more formal style. I would see 'in which' as something similar.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,
Can you help me distinguish the difference between “where” and “which”? I have read your comment saying that “where: show a location of an action”, so can you give me a description about “which”, “which” shows what?
Thank you,
Hello Sally Soo,
We use the relative pronoun 'which' to refer to things (e.g. 'That's the house which she wants to buy' or 'We had sushi, which is my favourite food'), with prepositions (e.g. 'That's the knife with which we cut the vegetables' or 'That's the knife which we cut the vegetables with') and with quantifiers (e.g. 'I had three cars, two of which now belong to someone else').
I'm not sure I've answered your question. If not, please feel free to ask again.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hi,
I'd like to know which one of these two sentences is correct?
The girl, whom I was telling you about, has already arrived
The girl, who I was telling you about, has already arrived
Moreover, is the "girl" the subject of the sentence? Or there are two subjects? The "girl" and "I".
Thanks a lot
Ax
Hello Ax45,
Grammatically, both sentences are possible. However, both seem quite awkward.
In modern English the use of 'whom' in a relative clause is very unusual and can sound rather stilted and archaic, so I think 'who' is the better option.
Notes that both sentences have non-defining relative clauses which add extra information rather than serving to identify the girl. Without knowing the context in which the sentences are used I can't say for certain if this is appropriate but it seems highly likely that a defining relative clause would be more suitable here, meaning one without commas which answers the question 'which girl'.
The sentence has two clauses and each clause has a subject: 'The girl' in the main clause and 'I' in the relative clause.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi!
That sentence confused me, ı found it while studying;
→ I visited the city (that / which) John comes from.
I would write 'where'..?
Hi Sanem0,
The correct form here is 'which' or 'that'.
When we use 'where' we do not include a preposition. Compare:
The phrase 'comes from' never loses its preposition so there is no equivalent of the second example above. It's a quirk of this particular verb, I'm afraid.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello. I was wondering whether the word 'where' in the following sentence may be replaced with 'that' without changing the original meaning of the sentence. I learned that this is possible in some cases, but was not sure if this is the case.
The sentence is "On our way to the site, there was a town where the main square and market were crowded with local people. At the market, I bought a cute doll from a woman who had made it herself".
I tried to search for a right answer to this question, but the results are mixed. I found some sources (e.g. grammarly.com and englishgrammar.org) saying no, but others (e.g. languagetool.org) saying yes.
I also found a case where 'that' can be used instead of 'where':
This is the restaurant where (that) we had a dinner last night.
I would like to learn why the replacement is allowed in this sentence.
Thank you so much for your time.
Hello chkcho,
All of your examples are relative clauses but you have two different grammatical items within them: that/who/which are examples of relative pronouns; where/when are examples of relative adverbs.
Generally speaking, you can replace a relative adverb with a relative pronoun plus an appropriate preposition, not just a relative pronoun. For example:
Note that when you use 'that' you need to put the preposition at the end, not before 'that'. When you use 'which' the preposition can be in either position.
As far as your examples go:
You cannot use 'that' here. You could use 'in which':
We would not use the alternative word order here as the phrase is too long; we only put the preposition at the end when the phrase is short as otherwise the sentence becomes quite hard to follow.
Grammarly is more of a style guide than a real grammar guide, in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend using it for language analysis. Sites such as this or Cambridge's grammar site are much better.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Team,
I got puzzled by this sentence. This is about punctuation in defining and non-defining relative clause. Should I put the comma '','' in my sentence because I think the sport that is played all over the world is just the extra information?
1. Football is a popular sport which is played all over the world.
2. Football is a popular sport, which is played all over the world.
Thank you very much.
Hello anhtuan01995,
I think the sentence is better without a comma. The reason is that there are many popular sports. The sport you are describing is different from some as it is one which is played all over the world. Thus, I would say that the information in the relative clause has an identifying function: it does not simply add an extra comment but actually serves to partly narrow down (restrict) the possible range of meaning. An alternative name for defining relative clauses is restrictive relative clauses and I think it is helpful to think of relative clauses in this way.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Good morning, I'm confused. Could you help me with this question?
Although a graduate degree is a requirement for the position, none of --- who responded to the job announcement have one. (a) these (b) those
The answer is "those". Why "these" is unsuitable?
Is there any example like this sentence which I can use "these who" as pronoun?
Hi ddh13,
When the meaning is "the ones", only "those" is used. "These" would only be used if you are making some kind of physical gesture (e.g. pointing with your finger) to show which people you are referring to.
For more information, you may be interested in this page from Cambridge Dictionary (see the final section, Substitution with that, those). I hope it helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello,
As it is written above:
There are two kinds of relative clause:
1. We use relative clauses to make clear which person or thing;
2. We also use relative clauses to give more information about a person, thing or situation.
I would like to ask for more: are the first ones called "defining relative clauses" and the second "non-defining relative clauses"?
Is it correct to say: defining relative clauses are used for essential information, while non-defining relative clauses just for extra information?
Thanks for your help
Hello User_1,
Yes, that's a good summary. The terms that are most often used are defining / restrictive and non-defining / non-restrictive.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Peter,
Thanks for your reply.
Hello! I am confused. Could you help me with this sentence?
1. Doctor Strange is a film about a superhero_________ stars Benedict Cumberbatch.
(That/which is written in answer, not where.) I know that “where” we use for a place and a film is not a place. That’s why it is not mention in answers. Am I correct?
Thanks in advance.
Hello nino123,
Yes, you are quite right. Well done!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I wanted to know if a sub clause can function both as a noun clause and a relative clause.
We may take the following sentences for analysis.
1. This is the reason why I'm here.
2. I don't know the reason why he was absent yesterday.
In sentence 1, the sub clause 'why I'm here' is a noun clause as it works as a complement of be verb . However, it also modifies the noun 'reason' as a relative clause does. In Sentence 2, 'why he was absent yesterday' functions as the object of the verb 'know', making it a noun clause. Again the same clause modifies the noun 'reason' as a relative clause does.
Now, what would I write if I was asked to identify the type of sub clause in those sentences? Please help me.
Thanking you!
Hello Prap,
This is a language learning forum where we focus on language use and accuracy. Your question is really on a linguistics topic, which is rather different. I think a better place for this kind of question is the appropriate part of StackExchange:
https://english.stackexchange.com
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, sir. I have a question. Can conjunction follow the relative clause? Or not?
Do the relative clauses always have to be followed by the relative pronouns? Because, in several cases, I often found them didn't use the relative pronoun.
And one last question, how to differentiate between a sentence that really needs the relative pronoun and one that does not?
Hi msyashazii,
Could you provide some examples of sentences that you found? That will be easier to discuss :)
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
I have a question, Could you help me?
An important event in my life was the beginning of my relationship with Jonathan, ______ I owed to our common friendship with Linda.
that - who - whom - which; which answers I can use for this sentence
Thank you so much
Hello Sandy Nguyen,
Here the correct option is 'which'. We use 'which' when giving more information. The relative clause tells us more about 'my relationship with Jonathan'.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Good evening!
I was teaching my FCE students relative clauses and came across an exercise where they had to combine sentences. This was the sentence: Unfortunately, the market has closed down. I buy my food from here. The teacher's book answer key: Unfortunately, the market, which I buy my food from, has closed down. Most of my students wrote where instead of which. Can both be correct? Thanks!
Hi AnaSL,
Yes, it is fine. Another possibility is to leave out "from": Unfortunately, the market, where I buy my food, has closed down. "Where" typically shows the location of an action (in this sentence, it shows the location of "buy my food"). In comparison, in your students' sentence (where I buy my food from), "where" does not show the location of the action, but the giver of the object. Perhaps this is why the answer key suggests using "which", not "where" - but I think your students' answer is fine too!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello Kirk!
I hope you can help me with my dilemma.
I think that in the sentence:"Emma, who cat belongs to." the relative pronoun "who" cannot be omitted, it just doesn't sound right to me, but I am having hard time finding a rule proving this. While a friend of mine who is learning English too says that it's okay to say "Emma cat belongs to", which sounds wrong to me. Which one is correct? Appreciate your answer
Hello Vellerivelleri,
The example you provide is not a complete sentence and is not grammatical even as it stands. The full and correct sentence could be something like this:
The relative pronoun 'who' is necessary here as the preposition 'to' requires an object. If you omit 'who' then there is no object within the relative clause.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, I came across the following sentences while I was reading about Relative Clauses.
1. We really love participating in discussions which helps us share our ideas and learn from others.
2. Mr.Minh has created a list of the most useful apps for his classrooms, which is available on his blog.
What does the word "which" in these two sentences refer to? I assume the first "which" refers to "participating in discussions", but I can't find any documents saying a relative pronoun can refer to a gerund like that. And I think the second "which" refers to "a list", but I remember a relative clause has to stand close to the antecedent. So I find it confusing.
Are the two sentences grammatically correct? And are they accurate examples of relative clauses?
Thank you a lot for your help in advance.
Hello misatran,
Sentence 1 is not correct as-is. Either 1) the verb 'helps' should be changed to 'help' so that its antecedent is 'discussions' (a plural subject) or 2) a comma should be put between 'discussions' and 'which' so that the 'which' clause makes a comment on the entire first part of the sentence.
Yes, I agree that sentence 2 could be improved. If it were one of my students, I'd suggest something like 'Mr. Minh has created a list of the most useful apps for his classrooms; this list is available on his blog' or 'See Mr. Minh's blog for his list of the most useful apps for his classrooms'. As it stands, the sentence isn't grammatically incorrect, but it is awkward.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello Kirk and LearnEnglish team,
I appreciate your explanation. I’m grateful for your help.
There is only one thing. If the second sentence isn’t grammatically incorrect, the relative pronouns don’t always have to be next to the noun it refers to. They can come after a preposition clause. Do I get this right?
Once again, thank you a lot for your help.
Hello misatran,
That's right, sometimes relative pronouns are not immediately adjacent to their antecedent. But this is generally something people try to avoid, especially in writing.
I wish I could give a clearer-cut answer, but as far as I know the only rule for when it's acceptable for there to be other words between the antecedent and the relative pronoun is that the sentence is not difficult to understand. That's relative, of course, which is why it's generally best to avoid it when possible!
All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello Kirk and LearnEnglish team,
Thank you so much for your help. Your explanation helps me understand this a lot better. I can't express how grateful I am for what your team has been doing.
All the best,
Misatran
Hello!
Could you please help me with the following:
1. "In this kind of relative clause, we cannot use that:
Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired." Is that only with the age (if I've got it correctly) when we can't use "who" or are there any other exceptions?
2, Are the following sentences correct:
They are helping me a lot, for which I'm very grateful.
He said we should live only for our pleasure, with what I strongly disagree.
I'm grateful very much for your constant help and thank you for answering this post beforehand!!!
Hi howtosay_,
Good questions!
1. Use "who" instead of "that" to refer to personal names, e.g. "Lord Thompson" in your example. It's with any information in the relative clause, not only with age.
2. The first sentence is correct. The second one should be "with which" instead of "with what". In both sentences, it's also possible to put the preposition at the end of the sentence: "... helping me a lot, which I'm very grateful for." and "... for our pleasure, which I strongly disagree with."
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello Sir,
What’s the difference between object of verb and object of preposition?
In this example (This is George’s brother, with whom I went to school.), whom is the object of with, but can we also say whom is the object of went?
Thanks!
KK
Hello KK,
Yes, 'whom' is the object of 'with' in this case. It's not correct, however, to say that 'whom' is an object of the verb 'went'. For one thing, the verb 'go' is an intransitive verb, which means it does not have an object.
If we simplify this sentence we get something like 'I went to school with George's brother'. 'with George's brother' is a prepositional phrase.
Hope this helps you make sense of it.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello! Is there anyone kind enough to answer this?
"Apple Pay Later now offers a plan where consumers can make four payments over six weeks."
Why does the writer use the pronoun "where"? I feel like it has to do with "Apple Pay Later" or "plan" but I can't come up with a good explanation about this.
Thanks!
Hello LAN1,
'Where' is an adverbial introducing a clause modifying the noun 'plan'. Adverbials of this kind can usually be replaced with a relative pronoun and a preposition, creating a relative clause:
You can see a few more examples here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_relative_clauses#Adverbials
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
May I ask something? actually, I am slightly confused about the combination of two sentences below :
1. I met a woman
2. She can speak six languages
The options if I combine :
1. I met a woman who can speak six language
2. A woman (that) I met can speak six languages
Which is the answer right? 1 or 2?
Hello Muhammad Fadhil,
Both 1 and 2 are grammatically correct, though we'd use them in different situations.
In 1, you are simply reporting that you met such a woman and so is more general. For example, maybe you're telling your friend about what happened at work today.
2 is something you would say in a more specific context -- for example, perhaps your friend was saying it was impossible to know more than three languages. You could respond with sentence 2 to show him he was wrong.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,
I'm confused and need your help. I know relative adverb "where" is used for place, but is the word "company" a place? Ex: The company where I used to work for is now closed? I'm confused because when I searched online they suggest to use "which" or "that".
Thanks in advance for your help.
Hello Metrey,
The place where you work (or study, live etc) is considered a place so where is correct:
If you want to use 'which' or 'that' then you need to add a preposition:
The forms in parentheses are more formal. Note that you cannot use 'that' when the preposition comes before the relative pronoun (in which not in that).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you so much for your great help.
(We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy.)
Why in this sentence we cannot leave out the pronoun?