EF

Relative pronouns

General information
Subject pronouns
Object pronouns
Possession ("whose")
As prepositional objects
Time
Space
Related topics

General information

Relative pronouns are used to join two sentences. For example, the following two sentences,

I found an apartment. This apartment has three rooms.

may be joined using a relative pronoun:

I found an apartment which has three rooms.

Relative pronouns have many different forms: who, whom, whose, that, which, that which, what. The pronoun is selected based on the following criteria:

1) What is the grammatical function of the pronoun? Is it a subject, a direct object, or a prepositional object?
2) Does the pronoun refer to a person or a thing (or a situation)?

3) Does the pronoun have an antecedent, or does it represent an unknown entity?

4) Does it represent a special case (possession, time, or space)?

According to the role it plays, the pronoun will take one of the following forms:

Subjects

The pronoun "who" expresses a grammatical subject when this subject is a person; "that" or "which" are used (indifferently by most speakers) to represent subjects which are things, events, situations, etc.

There's the man who stole my wallet!
I read a novel that entertained me a great deal.
He made a mistake which embarrassed him.

When the antecedent is vague or totally absent, one uses "what" or (less commonly) "that which" :

What interests me in this film is the music.
That which eludes us intrigues us the most.
I don't know what happened.

Objects

The pronoun "whom" (in spoken language one often hears "who") expresses a grammatical object when this object is a person; "that" or "which" are used (indifferently by most speakers) to represent objects which are things, events, situations, etc.

She is a person whom I respect a great deal.
He ordered a beverage which he didn't drink.
She is talking about the trip that we're going to take.

Note: Use of the relative pronoun is optional (except in the case of "what" or "that which" when referring to specific antecedents); the same sentences as above may be written correctly without the pronoun:

She is a person I respect a great deal.
He ordered a beverage he didn't drink.
She is talking about the trip we're going to take.

When the antecedent is vague or absent, on uses "what" or (less often) "that which" :

You can do what you want.
What they are doing seems useful.

Possession: "whose" / "of which"

The pronoun "whose" expresses possession when the subject is a person; it will often be replaced by "of which" if it refers to an object, an event, etc.:

The tourist whose ticket had expired filed a complaint.
There is the man whose mother is our mayor.
That was a good article, the point of which was to make us think.

Prepositional objects

The preposition generally precedes the appropriate pronoun:

Here's the pattern with which I made this shirt.
The woman for whom I work is quite strict.
Here's the tree next to which Newton was sitting.
They went out for dinner, after which they went home.
In spoken English, one often places the preposition at the end of the clause. Moreover, with the pronoun "what" this structure is required, even in written English:
Here's the pattern which I made this shirt with.
The woman whom I work for is quite strict.
Here's the tree which Newton was sitting next to.
Tell me what you're thinking about.

Time

The pronoun "when" is used with nouns indicating time. However, it is rarely necessary to include this pronoun, and it is often omitted:

I remember the day when we met.
I remember the day we met.
He arrived at the moment when we were speaking of him.
He arrived at the moment we were speaking of him.

Space

When more specific prepositions (such as "on," "under,", etc.) are not necessary, the general pronoun "where" will suffice:

Here's the house where my parents were born.
She doesn't know where she's going.

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