Relative Pronoun

What is a Relative Pronoun?

Pronouns that link independent clauses and dependent clauses of a sentence together are known as relative pronouns. For example, The man who sold the car was kind.

Relative Pronouns Examples

→ who
→ whom
→ whose
→ that
→ which
→ whoever
→ whomever
→ whichever
→ whatever

Types of Relative Pronouns

1. Possessive Relative Pronouns

1. Pronouns like "which" and "who" can acquire the possessive form "whose".
2. For example, The girl whose glasses got broken was upset.

2. Compound Relative Pronouns

1. Compound relative pronouns are pronouns that can be used for both people and things.
2. List of compound pronouns are whichever, whomever, whatever and whoever.
3. For example, You can invite whomever you want to your party.

Uses of Relative Pronouns

1. Which vs That

1. ‘That’ is used to refer to specific things, objects, people or circumstances. ‘Which’ on the other hand is used to describe people, things or circumstances.
2. ‘That’ is used to introduce restrictive clauses. Restrictive clauses are clauses which can affect the meaning of a sentence if removed.
   For example, My books that have brown covers are old.
3. ‘Which’ on the other hand is used with non-restrictive clauses. Non-restrictive clauses are those that, if removed, will not affect the sentence.
   For example, The restaurant, which serves delicious pasta, is always crowded.

2. Who vs Whom

1. ‘Who’ is used when we refer to a subject in the sentence and to provide extra information or ask questions about the topic.
2. An easy way to identify when to use ‘who’ is if we can replace pronouns with he, she or they.
   For example, Ellie is my friend who is a doctor.
   In the above sentence, we can replace ‘who’ with the pronoun she. Therefore, we can write the above sentence as Ellie is my friend. She is a doctor.
3. We use ‘whom’ when we refer to the object in the sentence and are used to provide extra information or ask questions about the object.
4. We use ‘whom’ when we can replace pronouns with him, her or them.
   For example, Lucy is the lady whom I told you about.
   We can replace ‘whom’ with her. Therefore, we can write the above sentence as Lucy is the lady. I told you about her.

3. Who vs That

1. ‘Who’ is used to refer to people.
   For example, The girl who won the competition celebrated her victory.
2. ‘That’ is used to refer to objects.
3. When we refer to a type of person or a class, we use ‘that’.
   For example: The team that won the championship celebrated their victory.

Why Do We Use Relative Pronouns

1. They are used to link an independent clause to a relative clause.
2. They are used to give more information about the subject which can be a noun or a pronoun.
3. They can also give non essential information or non-restrictive clauses. If we remove these clauses then the meaning of the sentence will not change. For example, ‘Caleb’s
   car, which is white, is parked in front of the building.’ If we remove ‘which is white’ from the sentence, its meaning will not change.
4. Pronouns like "whose", "whom" or "who" are used to refer to people.
5. Pronouns like that are used to refer to people.

To Read About Singular Pronoun: Click here

Common Mistakes with Relative Pronouns

1. Students may sometimes use ‘that’ when they refer to a person and ‘who’ when they refer to a thing. For example, ‘The boy that waved his hands is in my school.’ In this sentence, ‘that’ is incorrect as the sentence is referring to a person.Therefore, the correct sentence is ‘That boy who waved his hands is in my school’.
2. Sometimes, students forget to use relative pronouns where it is important to connect relative clause to the main clause. For example, ‘The dress I bought last week is beautiful.’ is an incorrect sentence whereas, ‘The dress that I bought last week is beautiful’.
3. Some students may misplace relative pronouns in a sentence. For example, ‘He met his friend in the park, he who hadn’t seen in years’ is an incorrect sentence as the relative pronoun ‘who’ is wrongly placed. The correct sentence will be ‘He met his friend, who he hadn’t seen in years, in the park.’

List of Relative Pronouns in Sentences

→ The dog that barks loudly lives next door.
→ The house that Tom built is huge.
→ The teacher who taught me English is the speaker of this event.
→ The song, which is playing on the radio, is my favourite.
→ The laptop, Which I use for work, is broken.

FAQs

1. What is a relative pronoun?

Answer: A relative pronoun is used to link an independent clause to a relative clause. They provide information about the subject it relates to. Examples of relative pronouns are who, which, that, whom, whoever, whomever.

2. Are relative pronouns similar to conjunctions?

Answer: Relative pronouns are used to connect sentences like conjunctions but they are not similar. A relative pronoun connects sentences and serves as a pronoun whereas conjunctions on the other hand only connect sentences.

3. What is an example of a relative pronoun used in a sentence?

Answer: An example of a relative pronoun used in a sentence is "The girl who played the violin is my friend".