Relative Determiners for intermediate learners

relative clauses relative determiners relative pronouns relatives what which whose

Relative determiners modify nouns within a relative clause. Follow the article to learn more about them.

Relative Determiners in the English Grammar

What Are Relative Determiners?

Relative determiners are used to join a relative clause to an independent clause. These determiners come before nouns and the sentence is called a nominal relative clause.

Relative Determiners: Uses

Relative determiners are mainly used to join a dependent clause to an independent one and when they become nominal relative clauses, they can be either the subject or the object of the sentence.

Relative Determiners: Placement

Relative determiners can be used at the beginning of a nominal relative clause or in the middle of the sentence and they are always followed by a noun or a noun phrase. Below, is a list of common relative determiners in English. Take a look:

What/Whatever
Which/Whichever
Whose

Now, let us take a look at some examples:

Whatever you're going to do is not my business.

As you can see, the nominal relative clause 'whatever you're going to do' is the subject here.

I'm not here to talk about which shoe she is going to be wearing tonight.

Here, the nominal relative clause is the object of the statement.

'Whose' is a possessive relative determiner and is used to indicate possession and belonging. Take a look at the following example:

The boss doesn't care about whose money you are stealing.