because relative pronouns refer to an antecedent. Relative pronouns can join
small sentences into longer sentences. A long series of short sentences can be ...
Lesson 31 English Relative Pronoun Worksheet
Nomen mihi est ___________________
Relative Pronouns Relative Pronouns are different from both personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you (pl.), they, etc.) and interrogative pronouns (who?, whose?, whom?, which?, what?) because relative pronouns refer to an antecedent. Relative pronouns can join small sentences into longer sentences. A long series of short sentences can be used to create a staccato effect when this is desired by the author to make a particular point, but it is usually best to vary sentence length in paragraphs to make the discourse smoother and less repetitive. Two sentences can be joined into one: I saw the horses.
The horses were in the road.
I saw the horses that were in the road. I saw the horses which were in the road.
In the last sentence that evidently refers to the horses which is called the antecedent. The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the noun, pronoun, or other word or expression for which the relative pronoun stands. The antecedent usually precedes the relative pronoun. The relative pronoun will agree with its antecedent in gender and number, but will take its case from its use in the relative clause. She is the queen. The boys like the books. These are the cookies.
She lived in Africa. The books tell about geography. I wanted the cookies.
She is the queen who lived in Africa. The boys like the books which tell about geography. These are the cookies that I wanted.
In these sentences who, which, and that are relative pronouns. The relative pronoun who usually refers to persons, but sometimes refers to animals. In English who can be declined much like Latin pronouns and nouns, except that there is no ablative case in English.
nominative genitive dative accusative
singular who whose to/for whom whom
plural who whose to/for whom whom
The relative pronoun which usually refers to animals, things, or ideas and the relative pronoun that can refer to persons, animals, things, or ideas. Which has the same form for all cases, except the genitive (whose), and that is not declined. There is another word in English that is considered to be a relative pronoun—what. This relative pronoun usually has an indefinite antecedent and will not be discussed here except to give an example. This is an example of what you should not be doing in the school building. Relative clauses When sentences have been joined together with a relative pronoun, one of the sentences becomes the main sentence and the other becomes the relative clause. It is important to be able to recognize the main sentence and the relative clause in a sentence. The relative pronoun usually follows its antecedent (the word it stands for) and begins the relative clause. The relative clause contains the secondary sentence. Sentence with relative clause in italics The boy whom I visited was my cousin. I know the town in which he was born. Have you seen the girl to whom I gave the books.
Main sentence The boy was my cousin. I know the town. Have you seen the girl?
Secondary sentence I visited the boy. He was born in the town. I gave the books to the girl.
Exercises: A. Join the two sentences together using a relative pronoun. 1. The road leads to the farm. We turned left on the road. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. The student ran to school. The student was late again. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. She saw a small pony. The pony was eating hay. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. All the men were pleased by your actions. We spoke to the men. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. How will you enter the room? The door of the room is locked. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ B. Circle the relative pronoun in the sentence and underline the antecedent . 1. A cow that belonged to the neighboring farmer was wandering around our yard eating the flowers. 2. Fred whose snake escaped from its terrarium was anxious to find it before his father did. 3. The other student to whom you showed the photographs became interested in photography. 4. The mother whom you saw in the library was looking for her child. 5. The man by whom we were robbed has been arrested. C. Underline the relative clause in the sentence, circle the antecedent of the relative pronoun, then determine the main and secondary sentences. 1. The girl who saw the accident ran to get help. main sentence______________________________________________________________________________________ secondary sentence__________________________________________________________________________________ 2. The bananas which were bought yesterday still were not ripe enough to eat. main sentence______________________________________________________________________________________ secondary sentence__________________________________________________________________________________ 3. The insect that I am now describing has very small wings considering its body size. main sentence______________________________________________________________________________________ secondary sentence__________________________________________________________________________________ 4. I will entrust the education of my son to the teacher whom I consider to be the best. main sentence______________________________________________________________________________________ secondary sentence__________________________________________________________________________________ 5. I tried to find the student to whom she gave my lunch. main sentence______________________________________________________________________________________ secondary sentence__________________________________________________________________________________
