Review of Relative Pronouns

Which Versus That

Which

That

·      Inessential clauses (info not necessary to complete meaning of sentence) ·      Use commas ·      Ex: That book, which I read over the weekend, was a real page-turner. ·      British English: interchangeable with "that” ·      American English: not interchangeable with “that”

·      Essential clauses (necessary info to complete meaning of sentence) ·      Don’t use commas ·      Ex: The book that you gave me was a real page-turner. ·      Informal English: sometimes used interchangeably with “who” ·      Be careful: it can be considered offensive to call a person “that,” because “that” is supposed to be used to refer to objects/things. ·      Standard English: usually not interchangeable with “who” (exception: groups of people, for ex. “The students that came to class yesterday will know the answer.”)

Who Versus Whom

Who

Whom

·      Subjective relative pronoun (ie. the one who is doing the action) ·      First, find the verb. Whoever is doing the action is the subject of the clause. ·      Ex: The woman who wrote that book is speaking at the library this weekend. (Who wrote the book? The woman wrote the book.) ·      Ex: Ms. Apple, who taught us last year, is going to be our teacher next year. (Who taught us? Ms. Apple taught us.)

·      Objective relative pronoun (ie. the one who receives the action) ·      Find the verb. The one doing the action is the subject, and the one receiving the action is the object. ·      Ex: The woman whom you met at the fundraiser last month is here. (Who met the woman? You met the woman. Who is being met? The woman.) ·      Ex: The man, whom I could have sworn I had never seen before in my life, greeted me by name. (Who had not seen the man? I had not seen the man. Who had not been seen? The man.) ·      To check, try replacing it with other objective pronouns like “her,” “him,” or “them.” (Whom did you meet? You met her.) ·      Used more often in formal, written English