I drive a car that was made in Germany.

French is a language which has a very

complicated grammar.

The teacher who taught me English knows

thousands of words.
 who
Consider the following sentence where the
relative pronoun is a subject:

The chef who won the competition studied in

Paris.

In this sentence, WHO relates back to (or is

relative to) the noun CHEF.

The relative pronoun joins two sentences:

The chef won the competition.
He studied in Paris.
 which
Which is used to refer to an animal or thing that
was already mentioned, joining two sentences in
order to make sense. It can usually be replaced
by that.

Examples:

I don’t like dogs which dig the garden.

I don’t like dogs that dig the garden.

 whose
Whose is used to refer to possession.

Examples:

I have seen the girl whose mother works here.

That’s the boy whose cellphone was found in the

classroom.
This is the man whose car is
in front your house.
 Pay Attention!

Which cannot be omitted or replaced by that:

When it comes after a preposition:

This is a subject about which I know very little.

When the which-part only adds more information about

the main sentence, but it will make sense without this
part.
This old car, which I bought with all the money I saved
last year, was the best I could find at the car agency.
We use only the pronoun THAT:

When there are two antecedents (people and

animal or people and thing):

I know the singers and the songs that she

mentioned.
people things
We use only the pronoun THAT:

 After adjectives in the superlative, first and

last.

She is the sweetest woman that I have ever met.

(superlative)

The last time that I saw him was in May.

The first thing that you have to do is call the

police.
We use only the pronoun THAT:

After all, only, everything, none, some, any, no

and their compounds.
She ate something that we had never seen.

 When it is essential to the meaning.

The gold medal that should have gone to
the Brazilian team went to the American one.

REMEMBER: The pronouns can only be ommited when

functioning as object, not when exercising the function of
subject.
Subjects and objects
Relative pronouns can be either subjects or objects.

Subject pronouns: If a verb comes right after a relative

pronoun, then the relative pronoun is a subject. Let’s
take a look at an example:

The woman who called you is my friend.

Object pronouns: If, on the other hand, there isn’t a

verb directly after the relative pronoun, then we know
that the relative pronoun is an object. Let’s check out
an example of this:

The woman who(m) you called is my friend.

* In this case, who(m) can be omitted (object).
 4. Mary already has the tickets
______________ we asked her to buy.
5. This is the man ______________ is
the most famous author ever –
William Shakespeare.
 6. The candidate will choose
___________will act as campaign
director.
7. The cell phone______________ I
bought doesn’t work very well.
8. The people ____________moved in
next door seem to be very
friendly.
 Go further!
Visit these websites to learn more
• https://www.englishexercises.org
• http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/gra
mmar/intermediate-grammar/relative-clauses
• https://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_fi
les/grammar-lesson-relative-pronouns.php
• https://www.grammar-quizzes.com/clauses-
1.html#thatwhichcls