Relative pronouns

A relative pronoun is a pronoun used to link two parts of a sentence.

The relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, which, that, what.

Examples:
• This is the person who painted my door.
• Peter is the boy whose phone was broken.
• Thomas saw the man to whom he had been speaking.
• She asked him which film he wanted to see.
• This is the song that I like most.
• I understood what he said.

In some cases, you can omit the relative pronoun without changing the meaning of a sentence.

Examples:
• My daughter liked the dress that I bought.
• My daughter liked the dress I bought.
• This is the song that I like most.
• This is the song I like most.

‘Who’ is the subject form, while ‘whom’ is the object form. You should normally use ‘whom’ with a preposition.

Examples:
• Who will write the letter?
• I know the girl to whom you were speaking.
• You asked him for whom he had brought the flowers.

In fact the distinction between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ is disappearing, especially in informal speech.

The following examples are grammatically incorrect but increasingly acceptable:

• I know the girl you were speaking to. (But NOT ‘I know the girl to who you were speaking’)
• You asked him who he had brought the flowers. (But NOT ‘You asked him for who he had bought the flowers’)

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^{Posted by Graham}