Relative clauses: who, which, that, whose, where

Relative pronouns

Pronoun	Refers to	Example
who	people (subject or object)	The soldier who won the prize is from Ohio.
whom	people (object, formal)	The officer whom you met is my uncle.
which	things and animals	The truck which broke down is ours.
that	people or things (defining clauses only)	The book that you borrowed from the library is overdue.
whose	the owner (people or things)	The man whose car was stolen called the police.
where	places	That's the base where I trained.
when	times	I remember the day when we met.
why	reasons (after the reason)	That's the reason why he left.

Common mistakes

Wrong: The man which lives next door is a pilot.Right: The man who lives next door is a pilot.
Wrong: The girl who her father is a pilot is in my class.Right: The girl whose father is a pilot is in my class.

When the relative pronoun is the object of the clause (another subject follows it), you can leave it out of a defining clause.

You cannot leave it out when it is the subject: "The man who called you is here" (not The man called you is here).

Common mistakes

Defining	Non-defining
identifies which person or thing: needed for the meaning	adds extra information: the sentence makes sense without it
no commas	commas around the clause
that is possible	that is not possible: use who or which
The soldiers who passed the test went home early. (only those soldiers)	My brother, who lives in Chicago, is a pilot. (I have one brother.)

Which can also refer to a whole idea: "He scored 90 on the ECL, which surprised everyone."

Informal	Formal
the man (who) I spoke to	the man to whom I spoke
the house (which) we lived in	the house in which we lived (= where we lived)

After a preposition, use whom or which, never who or that: "the officer to whom I reported".

You can shorten a relative clause by removing the pronoun and be, or by using an -ing or past participle form.

Full clause	Reduced
The man who is standing by the door is my boss.	The man standing by the door is my boss.
Soldiers who want to apply should see the clerk.	Soldiers wanting to apply should see the clerk.
The car which was parked outside was towed.	The car parked outside was towed.
The report that was written by the major is excellent.	The report written by the major is excellent.
Paris, which is the capital of France, is beautiful.	Paris, the capital of France, is beautiful.

ECL tipAn -ing form has an active meaning (the man stands). A past participle has a passive meaning (the car was parked).

Choose an answer: the explanation appears straight away.

Practice grammar

1,045 grammar questions with explanations, in the trainer.