relative pronoun
- noun
- /ˈrɛlətɪv ˈproʊnaʊn/
- Specialized
:
pronombre relativo
- The relative pronoun which is used in the clause "The car, which is red, belongs to my neighbor."
Examples
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In a sentence like "She is the teacher who inspired me," the word who serves as a relative pronoun referring back to "teacher."
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All right, So one option for the relative pronoun is the indeclinable feh.
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"Who" is the only one of the relative pronouns that changes its form to indicate case (who, whose, whom, as well as whoever, whomever).
Blog text (4) -
The Juvenal model runs low on all of these and also on but, as, when, where, since, though, and the relative pronoun which. (Who and whom lie near their normal frequencies.)
Academic text (2002) -
He runs well below the average in his use of relative pronouns, partly no doubt because of his propensity, noted earlier, for linking epithet and noun.
Academic text (2002) -
A relative pronoun is essential for connecting the two parts of the sentence: "The book that you lent me was fascinating."
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built: 'relative' (relating to or referring back) combined with 'pronoun' (a word replacing a noun) yields a pronoun that relates to or refers back to an antecedent. This is a standard grammatical label found across many languages (e.g. Spanish 'pronombre relativo'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will generally be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The term relative pronoun comes from its job: pronoun is a small word that stands for a noun and relative means 'related to' or 'connecting'. Imagine who, which, or that as a tiny bridge that links a noun and the part of the sentence that describes it, so the name tells you it is a word that connects one part of a sentence to another.
