Download Relative Pronouns Who, Whom, Whose, Which, and

BrainPOP ESL | Level 3 Unit 6 Lesson 1 | Action! | Know More!
Relative Pronouns
We use relative pronouns to connect parts of sentences to the nouns they
describe. Relative pronouns introduce relative, or dependent, clauses. They are
called relative pronouns because they relate, or connect, to the nouns they are
describing.
For example: The boy won the race. He is my friend.
The boy who won the race is my friend.
In the example, the relative pronoun who:
relates to "the boy";
describes, or provides information about, the boy; and
introduces and is the subject of the relative clause, "who won the race."
The relative pronoun comes right after the noun it modifies.
Correct: The boy who won the race is my friend.
Incorrect: The boy is my friend who won the race.
Who, Whom, Whose, Which, and That
The five main relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, which, and that.
For people, we use who or that.
For things, we use which or that.
Relative
Pronoun
Use
Example
who
for people
The students who took the test
did very well.
that
for people, animals, and
things
The students that took the test
did very well.
The test that the students took
wasn't easy.
which
for animals and things
The test, which the students
took yesterday, wasn't easy.
whose
to show possession
I know the student whose test
was the best.
whom
for people; comes after
prepositions or when it is the
direct object of the verb;
used more formally
The man whom you met is my
brother.
The people with whom I study
are very nice.
where
for places
New York City is where I was
born.
when
to describe time
Twelve o'clock is when we eat
lunch.
why
to describe the reason
The terrible traffic is why I was
late.
Leaving out the Relative Pronoun
We can leave out the relative pronoun when it’s the object of the verb it follows.
For example: I talked to the boy. (object) He won the race.
With relative pronoun
The boy who/that I talked to won the race.
The boy whom I talked to won the race.
Without relative pronoun
The boy I talked to won the race.
We must include the relative pronoun when it’s the subject of the verb it follows.
For example: The boy talked to me. He won the race.
The boy who talked to me won the race.
Whose
We use the relative pronoun whose to express possession. We use whose used
instead of his, her, its, or their.
For example: I know a man. His son won the race.
I know a man whose son won the race.
Note: Relative pronouns are the same for singular and plural, and masculine and
feminine.
For example: I know a man whose daughter won the race.
I know the people whose children won the race.
Used to
Used to can be a verb or an adjective, and has different meanings depending on
its use.
1. Used to as a Verb
We say used to + verb to talk about something that happened frequently
in the past, but doesn’t happen anymore.
For example: When I was little, I used to go to the beach a lot.
They used to play together after school every day.
Note: We can also say would, instead of used to.
For example: When I was little, I would go to the beach a lot.
They would play together after school every day.
We also say used to + verb to talk about a situation in the past, which is
different now.
For example: We used to live in New York.
She used to be afraid of the dark.
As with all simple past tense verbs, the verb used to changes with did or
didn’t.
For example: We used to walk to school. Did you use to walk to
school?
We didn’t use to walk to school.
2. Used to as an Adjective
We say be/get used to as an adjective. It means that something is now
very familiar; it’s not strange or new anymore.
For example: I am used to this computer now.
We will never get used to that noise.
When the noun following used to is an action, it is a gerund (verb + ing).
For example: He got used to waking up so early.
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