Learn English Grammar and Vocabulary
Relative Pronouns
Read the following pairs of sentences.
- I saw a little girl. She was very cute.
- Here is the book. You lent me the book.
Each of these pairs can be combined into a single sentence.
- I saw a little girl who was very cute.
- Here is the book which you lent me.
In the sentences given above who and which are examples of relative pronouns. Let us examine the work done by them.
In sentence 1, who stands for the noun the little girl: hence it is a pronoun. It also connects the two statements – ‘I saw a little girl’ and ‘She was very cute’. Hence it acts as a conjunction.
The word ‘who’ therefore does double work and may be called a conjunctive pronoun. But it is actually called a relative pronoun because it relates to the noun that has gone before it.
In sentence 2, which stands for the noun the book. It also connects the two statements ‘Here is the book’ and ‘You lent me the book’. A relative pronoun is a word that does the work of a pronoun and a conjunction. Examples are: who, which, that, what, as and but
The noun to which a relative pronoun relates or refers is called its antecedent. In the examples given above the little girl and the book are the antecedents of who and which.
Related posts:
Comments are closed.