RELATIVE PRONOUNS

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

Relative Pronouns Chart

Read the following combination of sentences.

i.                  I have found the culprit. The culprit was posting absurd things about me on Facebook.

ii.                I love to play football. Football is an international game.    

iii.                Here is your umbrella. You forgot you umbrella in my shop yesterday.

Now see how they have been combined into a single sentence without any addition or deletion to the meaning of theirs original meanings.

i.                   I have found the culprit who was positing absurd things about me on Facebook.   

ii.                I love to play football which is an international game.

iii.                Here is your that you forgot in my shop yesterday.

Now examine the words WHICH, WHO AND THAT; and the work done by them.

In the first example the word WHO has been used instead of the noun phrase THE CULPRIT. Since it replaces a noun (THE CULPRIT), and all the replacing words are pronoun, therefore the word WHICH functions as a pronoun in this sentence.

Examine the second sentence, the word WHO has replaced a noun phrase THE CULPRIT, yet again there is a replacement of a noun or noun phrase, and all replacing words are called pronoun, therefore the word WHO is a pronoun here.

Examine the third combination in which the word THAT has replaced the noun or noun phrase THE UMBRELLA, and therefore is a pronoun here.

NOW

We all know that a word that joins two things, like two words, two phrases, two clauses or two independent sentences, is called a conjunction. You can evidently see from the above examples that the words WHICH, WHO & WHOM are joining two sentences, therefore they are functioning like CONJUNCTION.  Must know, that such a PRONOUN is a replacing word and  a CONJUNCTION is a JOINING word.

So what will you call WHICH, WHO  and THAT? A PRONOUN or A CONJUNCTION? Are you in horns of a dilemma? Then proceed through.

It is, however called a RELATIVE PRONOUN because it refers or relates (Means bringing meaning from) to some noun that is just going before it and without it’s presence or meaning these words WHICH, WHO, THAT have no meaning.

Must remember that the noun that comes just before the relative pronoun, is called ANTECEDENT, an antecedent is a word, phrase or clause to which another word (Especially a following relative pronoun) refers or relates back.

Before you go further, we recommend you to think the following things,

a.      What is a relative pronoun?

b.      How WHICH, WHO and THAT rae functioning as relative pronouns in the above examples?

c.       Can you make such sentences using RELATIVE PRONOUNS?

d.      What is an ANTECEDENT?

e.      What is the relationship between an Antecedent and a relative pronoun?

You can answer us these questions in the comment box below, you can visit our website www.englishgrammartoday.com , if you are an Indian native, you can visit our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTd9F8JCCux_VYta-xZJjkA?view_as=subscriber where we post English grammar suggestions in Hindi.

And now let’s proceed further.

Forms of the Relative Pronoun

1.The relative pronoun WHO has different forms NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE and GENITIVE cases. See the examples below.

Nominative:                                   WHO

Genitive:                                          WHOSE

Accusative:                                      WHOM

Examples; as,

i.                    This is the woman who helped a poor child to grow up to excellence.

ii.                  This is the woman whose fame for charity is well known

iii.                This is the woman whom the president awarded for her contribution to the club.

Must notice that when the ANTECEDENT is singular, the RELATIVE PRONOUN is singular, when it is plural, the RELATIVE PRONOUN is also plural.

2.The relative pronoun WHICH has the same form for the NOMINATIVE  and ACCUSATIVE cases.

Nominative: WHICH

Accusative:  WHICH

Examples; as,

i.                    This is the tiger which has become a man eater.

ii.                  This is the tiger which is being searched by many hunters.

Relative pronoun WHICH has no genitive case. But you can use WHOSE as the substitute OF WHICH.

Example; as,

A triangle whose three angles are equal is called an equilateral triangle.

3.The relative pronoun THAT has the same form in the singular and plural, and in the accusative and nominative cases, it has no genitive case.

Examples; as

i.                    He that is content is rich.

ii.                  They that come late will not be permitted entry.

iii.                Choose anything that you think you like.

4.The relative pronoun WHAT is used only in the singular, and has the same form in the NOMINATIVE and ACCUSATIVE.

Examples; as,

i.                    What has happened is still unclear.

ii.                  I say what I mean.

iii.                He succeeded in what he attempted.

USE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS

1.       As a general rule, WHO is used for persons only. It may refer to a singular or plural noun.

Examples; as

i.                    The man who keeps his words is respected.

ii.                  Blessed is he, who has an aim.

iii.                He, who lives in a glass house, should not pelt stone to others.

iv.                 He who has not courage, has nothing.

v.                   They are never forgotten who die for the country.

vi.                 They are born slave who don’t take risk.

2.       WHOSE (The possessive form of WHO) is used in speaking of persons, animals and also things without life.

                    Examples; as,

i.                    The sun, whose rays foster life, is the source of all forms energy we know.

ii.                  This is the question, whose answer is still  unfound.

iii.                 

3.       WHICH is used for things without life and for animals. It may relate to a singular or plural noun.

Examples; as,

i.                    This time which has passed will never come back.

ii.                  The books which help you most, are your best friends.

iii.                The dog which barks for no reasons, is a nuisance for the entire neighborhood.

WHICH may sometimes relate an entire sentence; as,

i.                    The man was proved guilty, which was only because he could not hire an advocate.

We have explained a lot of things about RELATIVE PRONUNS, though there are still many things to explain. Soon we are going to conduct a test on the things we have explained so far. After that we will explain each and every nook and corner of RLATIVE PPRONOUNS.

Thank you for staying with us. Once again a request, please please please visit our website www.englishgrammartoday.com  . If you are an Indian native, you can visit our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTd9F8JCCux_VYta-xZJjkA?view_as=subscriber where we post English grammar suggestions in Hindi.

Have a good day, with love from #Team_Today

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