Subject
|
Object
|
Possessive
|
who
|
whom, who
|
whose
|
which
|
which
|
whose
|
that
|
that
|
Example :
as subject (see
Clauses Sentences and Phrases)
• Isn’t that the woman who
lives across the road from you?
• The police said the accident that
happened last night was unavoidable
• The newspaper reported that the tiger
which killed its keeper has been put down.
As object of
a clause (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)
• Have you seen those people who we
met on holiday?
• You shouldn’t believe everything that
you read in the newspaper.
• The house that we rented in
London was fully furnished.
• The food was definitely the thing which
I enjoyed most about our holiday.
We also 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 1996. 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.
But we can
leave out the word when:
• England won the world cup in 1996. It was
the year we got married.
• I remember my twentieth birthday. It was
the day the tsunami happened
We use who, whom, whose,
and which (but not that) in
relative clauses to tell us more about a person or thing.
As subject (see
Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)
• My uncle, who was born in Hong
Kong, lived most of his life overseas.
• I have just read Orwell’s 1984, which
is one of the most frightening books ever written.
As object (see
Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)
• We saw the latest Harry Potter film, which
we really enjoyed.
• My favourite actor is Marlon Brando, who
I saw in “On the Waterfront”.
We can use whom instead
of who as object:
• My favourite actor was Marlon
Brando, whom I saw in “On the Waterfront”.
We often use
quantifiers and numbers with relative pronouns:
many of
whom - most of whom - one of which - none of whom
some of which - lots of whom - two of which - etc.
some of which - lots of whom - two of which - etc.
We can use them
as subject, object or object of a preposition.
• 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.
We often use the
relative pronoun which to say something about a clause:
• He was usually late, which always annoyed
his father.
• We’ve missed our train, which means we may be
late.
