Relative pronouns for people and things

Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates" to the word that its relative clause modifies. Here is an example:

• The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

• relates to "The person", which "who phoned me last night" modifies
• introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five basic relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession.Which is for things. That can be used for things and people only in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information).

Exercise 1:  Relative Pronouns (who / which / whose)

Exercise  2:  Who or Which?

Exercise 3:  Which, That, and Who