Grammar:                                                Relative pronouns and relative clauses

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.

 

I.            Who, which and that:

We use:

• who and whom for people
• which for things
• that for people or things.

Types 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.

Ø  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.

Ø  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)

Ø  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.

Ø  Be carful! 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.)

 

II.            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.

 

III.            Relative pronouns with prepositions:

Ø  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.

Ø  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.

Ø  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.

 

IV.            When and Where :

Ø  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.

Ø  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.

Ø  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.