Relative Pronouns For Intermediate learners

This lesson covers Relative Pronouns with clear explanations and easy examples to help you understand them better.

"Relative Pronouns" in English Grammar

What Are Relative Pronouns?

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. Relative pronouns allow speakers and writers to add more information about a noun or pronoun in a sentence, and to clarify its identity or characteristics.

Types of Relative Pronouns

There are two types of relative pronouns:

1.

Defining: it is essential to the meaning of the sentence

2.

Non-defining: it is not essential to the meaning of the sentence

Common Relative Pronouns

Common relative pronouns in English are:

Relative Pronouns

What they are referring to

Who

people and sometimes pet animals

Which

animals and things

That

people, animals and things

Where Do We Place Relative Pronouns?

We place relative pronouns directly after the noun or pronoun they are referring to. Look at the following examples:

Example

This is the car which Jake bought. (non-defining)

The girl who is wearing a black hat is my friend. (defining)

Tim Berners-Lee is the man that invented the World Wide Web. (defining)

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Dummy Pronouns

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Reciprocal Pronouns

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Impersonal Pronouns

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Nominal Relative Pronouns

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Nominal relative pronouns are also known as free relative pronouns are used to introduce a relative clause.

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