English Grammar

What does a Relative Pronoun do?

Subordinate clauses often begin with relative pronouns. Within a subordinate clause the relative pronoun may serve as subject or object of the verb, or object of the preposition.

Study the following examples carefully.

I saw a beggar who was deaf and dumb.
The trees that grew in the garden were cut-down for fire-wood.

There I met an old man whom my father had known. The snake, which we could not kill, crept into a hole.

Grammar notes: When a relative pronoun is used as the object, it will be immediately followed by another noun. In the above examples, my father is the subject of the clause ‘whom my father had known’; we is the subject of the clause ‘which we could not kill’.

The man, to whom I owned money, demanded immediate payment.
I need a room in which I can stay.

Grammar notes: When the relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, we can put the preposition at the end of the clause, but then the relative pronoun is usually dropped.

The man I owed money to demanded immediate payment. (Whom is omitted.)
I need a room I can stay in. (Which is omitted.)