English Quiz - Relative Pronouns (Answers)
Relative pronouns relate two parts of a sentence together, usually by joining a relative clause to the rest of a sentence. Who, which, whose, that and whom are the five relative pronouns. 'The man who rang me a moment ago asked if I would be interested in a special offer.' - In this sentence, the word 'who' functions as a relative pronoun.
Try this English quiz to see how well you understand this aspect of grammar.
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That is the factory in which my Dad used to work
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There's the book that I thought I'd lost - 'which' would also be correct
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Gordon, whose nephew you met yesterday, will be visiting later
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The man with whom the Inspector was speaking is the notorious diamond thief, Renard. - When a person is the object of a sentence, the correct pronoun to use is 'whom' (The Inspector is speaking to Renard - With whom is the Inspector speaking?). Because this is considered very formal, you will rarely hear it in spoken English (usually, people use 'who' instead). It is important to know when to use 'whom', however, for times when you need to be absolutely correct
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Who took the laptop which I was working on? - Many people (including teachers) believe that it is incorrect to end on a preposition ('on') in English. This is not at all true. English is a Germanic language - the 'not ending on a preposition rule' only applies to Romance languages (those based on Latin). 'Who took the laptop on which I was working' would sound silly because the grammar is too formal for the context
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The van, which was stopped earlier today by police, turned out to be driven by the men suspected of last week's bank robbery
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The teacher who taught me German will be retiring this year
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The classmates with whom I studied German decided to give our teacher some flowers
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The train which travels directly to Liverpool has been cancelled. 'That' would be incorrect because it would be acting as the subject of the relative clause
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The woman who said hello was my old dance teacher. Although it can be used to refer to a person, 'that' is not correct as the subject of a clause (i.e. that said hello). You will hear 'that' used incorrectly in informal spoken English, however