We use who and whom for people, and which for things. Or we can use that for people or things. We use relative pronouns: • after a noun, to make it clear which person or thing we are talking about: the house that Jack built the woman who discovered radium an eight-year-old boy who attempted to rob a sweet shop • to tell us more about a person or thing: My mother, who was born overseas, has always been a great traveller. Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired. We had fish and chips, which is my favourite meal. But we do not use that as a subject in this kind of relative clause. We use whose as the possessive form of who: This is George, whose brother went to school with me. We sometimes use whom as the object of a verb or preposition: This is George, whom you met at our house last year. This is George’s brother, with whom I went to school. But nowadays we normally use who: This is George, who you met at our house last year. This is George’s brother, who I went to school with. When whom or which have a preposition the preposition can come at the beginning of the clause... I had an uncle in Germany, from who[m] I inherited a bit of money. We bought a chainsaw, with which we cut up all the wood. … or at the end of the clause: I had an uncle in Germany who[m] I inherited a bit of money from. We bought a chainsaw, which we cut all the wood up with. We can use that at the beginning of the clause: I had an uncle in Germany that I inherited a bit of money from. We bought a chainsaw that we cut all the wood up with.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 03:13:36 +0000
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