First Grammar Lessons: Part IV, Lesson XI

Lesson XI

The next difficulty with relative pronouns is that they have a way of getting out of their proper places.

We know that the object should follow the verb. When a relative pronoun is an object, it not only goes before the verb, but even before the subject.

The boy whom you saw has a little sister, whom being the object of the verb saw.

Whom is used in speaking of persons. It is always an object, and therefore in the objective case.

The possessing relative pronoun is whose.

It has an antecedent like the others, and agrees with its antecedent in the same three ways.

The child, whose doll you saw, is crying.

Child is the antecedent to whose, and whose possesses doll.

To be learnt.

“Whom” is always an object, though it goes before the subject.

“Whose” is the possessive relative, and it agrees with the noun that goes before it.

Exercise XI

1. Break the following sentences into two parts:

The man to whom I spoke was very old.
The boy whose dog I found is tall.

2. Find the antecedents of the relative pronouns in given sentences, such as:

The child whom we found lives in the white cottage.

3. Give the person, number and gender of the relative in given sentences, such as:

The little girl whose mother is ill goes to school regularly.

4. Supply a sentence with a relative pronoun as object in the blank:

That little boy _____ is very sad.

5. Supply a sentence using a possessive relative pronoun in:

The farmer _____ is Mr. Brown.

6. Make sentences about:

The baker, Mary, my aunt, our grandfather,
using (1) an objective, and (2) a possessing, relative pronoun.

7. Find their antecedents, and give their person, gender, and number.