Relative Pronouns: Definition and Examples | List of Relative Pronouns & Example Sentences

RELATIVE PRONOUN

Reltive Pronouns, which relate to some noun going before in the sentence as who, whose, whom, which, what, that.

A relative pronoun does the work of a conjunction as well as a pronoun.

e.g

Who / whome / whose	normally referring to people
Which / what / that	referring to things

e.g

Sentences	Relative Pronoun
I know the man. The man lives here.	I know the man who lives here.

Relative Pronoun
The man who stole the car has been caught
The man whom you accused is not guilt
The woman whose house I rented is my cous
The house which you see was built long ago
I mean what I say
Take anything that you like
Here the girl whom you wanted to meet
The happy laughter that made me smile came from the three-year-old who lives next door

The Relative Pronoun who has different forms for Accusative and Genitive

e.g

This is the boy / girl	who works hard.
	whom / who all praise
	whose exercise is done well
These are the boys / girls	who works hard.
	whom / who all praise
	whose exercises are done well

It will be noticed that the forms are the same for singular and plural, masculine and feminine.

Rules 1 : In informal usage, a relative pronoun is optional when it is followed by a subject; it’s required in formal usage.

e.g

Formal	This is the gift that I got last New Year
Informal	This is the gift I got last New Year

Rules 2 : When the relative pronoun is not followed by a subject, it must be included.

e.g

Hussy is a boy who loves to play video games

Rules 3 : When the relative pronoun is preceded by a comma, it must be included.

e.g

Brian, who likes to raise chickens, is an FFA member.

Rules 4 : Whose is the possessive relative pronoun; it cannot be omitted.

e.g

John is a teenager whose goal is to get into a good college.