Test Your Grammar

• RELATIVE CLAUSES

Andy has a friend _______ is a student.

1. whose

2. which

3. that

4. whom

Correct Answer: 3. That

• Explanation

Relative pronouns who, whose, which, that or whom introduce a relative clause. Relative clauses give us more information about someone or something (the subject or object of a main clause), help us combine clauses without repeating information and give focus to something or someone: She bought a dress, which is rather pretty. By combining sentences with a relative clause, we make our speech more fluent.‘Whose’ is used to say that something or someone is connected with or belongs to a person, so,‘whose’ is for possession and possessions: She has a sister whose name I can’t remember. We use ‘which’ for things and animals: We don’t go to restaurants which serve meat.; Do you see that cat which is lying on the bench?. We use ‘whom’ (more formal) for people: I was invited to Isabel whom I had met at the conference. And we use ‘that’ for people, animals and things: The woman that is dancing over there is my boss.; I am reading the book that is on the arm-chair.; A kiwi is a bird that lives in New Zealand. ‘That’ is more informal than ‘who’, ‘whom’ or ‘which’.In the test sentence ‘Andy has a friend _____ is a student.’ we need to choose a relative pronoun that is used for people, because in the relative clause of the test sentence we are told more about the object of the main clause – a friend (a person). In the relative clause it becomes the subject ‘…_____ is a student.’,thus, we need to choose the relative pronoun that can function as the subject in the test sentence.Two test answers ‘whom’ and ‘that’ are used for describing people. ‘Whom’ introduces objects.Therefore, we choose the relative pronoun ‘that’ that can function both as the object and the subject -ANSWER 3. By using the relative pronoun ‘that’, we avoid repeating the noun ‘friend’ in the relative clause.