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Relative pronouns link two clauses together. The most common are “that, who, whom, which”. They can be used in restrictive or non-restrictive clauses. The pronoun refers to the antecedent in the first clause. Non-restrictive clauses use a comma and “which” or “who”, while restrictive clauses use “that”.
A relative pronoun is a type of pronoun that links two clauses together to form a more cohesive sentence or clause. In English, the most common relative pronouns are “that, who, who, cui” and they can be used in slightly different forms such as “whoever” and “whosoever”. There are two main ways a relative pronoun can be used, which are referred to as restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. Restrictive relative clauses typically don’t have a comma, use “that” and the second sentence is needed to allow for the full meaning, while a non-restrictive relative clause often has a comma, use “which” or another pronoun, and the second clause it is not absolutely necessary.
The use of a relative pronoun is typically intended to link two clauses together through a pronoun that allows the second clause to refer to the first. In this type of sentence, the pronoun in the second sentence refers to the subject or object of the first sentence, which is called the antecedent. Each clause connected by a relative pronoun can be written separately, and in joining them the use of the pronoun allows for a clearer understanding by the reader.
This can be seen in a simple sentence like “Bob built the house I moved into last week”. Two short statements could express the same idea: “Bob built the house. I moved in last week.” Instead of using two short clauses, however, they can be linked through the use of a relative pronoun which relates the object of one clause to the subject or object of another.
“Bob built the house” is a sentence and has the subject “Bob”, the verb “built” and the direct object “the house”. In the second sentence, “to which I moved last week,” the relative pronoun “that” takes the place of “the house” in the first sentence; “the house” is indicated as the antecedent in this sentence. So the second sentence then has the subject “I” and the verb phrase “moved in the last week” with a direct object of “that” as the relative pronoun.
This is an example of a restrictive relative clause, where the second clause is needed for full meaning. While each clause could exist on its own, the purpose of this sentence is to explain that “Bob” built a house that the speaker has moved into, and without the second clause this meaning is obscured. In contrast to this is a non-restrictive relative clause, where the second clause only expands on the first and is not strictly necessary for the meaning.
An example of a non-restrictive relative clause is a statement such as “I own a cat, which I found in my garage.” Although the second clause “that I found in my garage” provides additional information in the sentence, it is not absolutely necessary. The meaning of the sentence is that the speaker owns a cat, which is conveyed in the first sentence. Restrictive clauses use “that” and do not have a comma, while non-restrictive clauses use a relative pronoun such as “which” or “who” and separate the clauses with a comma. Relative pronouns in English are often differentiated based on whether the subject is human or not, with “who” and “who” referring to human antecedents while “that” and “which” are used for non-human ones .
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