periwork.com

Charlotte Bourgeois and Martin Chaslus

I. GENERAL POINTS

The relative pronoun replaces the noun or subordinates it to a proposition.

Relatives have two functions : qualification, or restriction and description.

You have to choose a relative pronoun according to the antecedent noun and its grammatical function.

A relative pronoun is put on the right side of the noun :

"The men who belonged to the party were all taken to the airport."

A. Nouns of human beings:

If the noun is subject: use who (qui, lequel).

"The man, the child, the doctor… who came…"

If the noun is a complement (COD): use whom (que)

"The man, the child, the doctor whom I saw…"
"The boy to whom I was talking"
"The girl from whom I got the barbie girl"

NB: Whom is often replaced with who.

Possessive form: use whose (dont)

"The man whose wife was stupid…"
"The boy whose dog barked all the time"

B. Nouns of things, animals …

If the noun is subject or a complement: use which

"The bomb which exploded in Corsica…"
"The decision which the government took…"
"The teddy bear for which I had the most affection…"

Possessive form: use of which

"The goat the milk of which we always drank"
" The house the roof of which needed repair"

NB: "Whose" is often preferred to "of which" because it is more simple. Use "of which" only if you want to put an emphasis on the fact that the noun is an object and not a human being.

II. WHEN, WHERE, WHY

When and where give information about time and place:

"I remember the day when I met you" is the equivalent of "I remember the day on which I met you"
"I know a place where I can buy good tea" is the equivalent of "I know a place at which I can buy good tea"

Why explains the consequence of something or introduces a clause we do not have the reasons of:

"These are the reasons why you should work at school."
"I never understood why people say that English is useful".

III. WHATEVER, WHICHEVER, WHOEVER, WHEREVER, WHENEVER, HOWEVER

Those words imply that the rest of the relative clause does not determine the main clause:

"Whoever my father is, I will find him". In this case, the answer to the question who is my father? have no incidence on the fact that I will find him.
"However he did it, I guess it was not legal."

This can also be expressed by no matter who / how / where…

"No matter where you hide those proofs, as long as the police does not find them."

CAUTION !!: with whatever, etc, the verb is always at the present tense:

"Whenever you come back, I will be waiting for you" AND NEVER "whenever you will come back…"
Whether…or: "whether he is drunk or not, he never walks straight."

In this case, when the alternative is or not , the meaning is the same as no matter if.

IV. PARTICULAR USES

When the antecedent noun is a complement in the relative clause, you often needn’t use who, that, etc…

" The man (Ø) I saw in the theatre was your uncle"

Caution! ! ! Don’t do this in the following cases:

If the antecedent is the subject:

Do not write: " The man (Ø) came out of the cinema was your uncle"
Write: "The man who came out of the cinema…"

If the antecedent is a complement:

Do not write: "The doctor from (Ø) I got the medicine lives down the street."
Write: "The doctor from whom I got the medicine…"

If the antecedent is a possessive pronoun :

Do not write: "The building’s (Ø’s elevator was out of order) was closed last week"

Write: "The building whose elevator was out of order."

A. Avec verbes prépositionnels:

Interrogative form: "Who did you call on", or "On whom did you call?"

"What did he look at?", "What was he referring to?"

B. Which, what, that: precisions

That is employed after all, everything, the only (…), and superlatives.

"The Nazis wanted to burn all that Otto Dix had painted."
"The only thing that I keep is your photograph".
"He is the biggest man that I have ever seen."

What at the beginning of a sentence means the thing that :

"What I do not understand is the relation between Otto Dix and the English grammar."

It can also be employed as which, when this word refers to a whole clause:

"There was no beer left, which was a real pity or what was a real pity". In this case, which or what refer to "there was no beer left".

When it refers to a part of a clause, which should be used exclusively:

"I drank two beers, which was to much for me": in this case, which refers to "two beers".

IF YOU WANT TO DO SOME EXERCISES ABOUT THIS GRAMMAR POINT,

CLOSE THIS APPLICATION, GO TO "DEMARRER", "PROGRAMMES", "GRAMSTER"