Relative and Interrogative Pronouns

2. RELATIVE PRONOUNS
• A RELATIVE PRONOUN introduces a
subordinate clause.
• A subordinate clause must contain a subject
and a verb (just like a sentence), but cannot
stand on its own as a sentence.
– A subordinate clause needs the other
words around it to make a complete
sentence.

3. • There are five words that commonly serve as
relative pronouns. They are:
1) That
2) Which
3) Who
4) Whom
5) Whose
• BE CAREFUL! Four of these same words
can also be interrogative pronouns.

4. WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN A SENTENCE
• In the following sentences, the relative pronoun is in
bold, and the entire subordinate clause is underlined.
– The one over there is the cake that Ashley baked.
– The new building, which was just built five years
ago, already looks old.
– Collin is the player who scored the winning
touchdown.
– The man whom you are looking for is over there.
– The person whose car this is will be angry when
he sees what happened.

5. RELATIVE PRONOUN OR NOT?
 The planets which make up our solar system all
revolve around the sun.
 Which of these movies do you like the best?
 The man whom I talked to said that our team won.
 That is the first house I ever lived in.
 That is the woman who helped my sister fix a flat
tire.

6.  The Statue of Liberty, which is in New York,
was given as a gift from France.
 Whom were you talking to on the phone?
 Whose house were you at last night?
 I hope that I win the race tomorrow.
 Our neighbor’s dog, whose bowl is always
empty, is really overweight.

7. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
• An INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN introduces
a question.
• NOTE: An interrogative pronoun must take
the place of a noun or pronoun – it cannot
appear right in front of a noun or pronoun.

8.  There are only five words in the English
language that are used as interrogative
pronouns. They are:
1) What
2) Which
3) Who
4) Whom
5) Whose
 Note: Technically, you can add “-ever” to the
end of each of these five and then we have
ten possible interrogative pronouns, not five.

9.  Interrogative pronoun, like all pronouns, must
take the place of a noun or pronoun.
 Therefore, if we turn a question into a
statement, we should be able to replace an
interrogative pronoun what a noun or
pronoun.
 Therefore, a word like why can’t be
interrogative, because we could never
answer a why? question with just a noun or
pronoun.

10. HOW THEY’RE USED
 Examples of interrogative pronouns:
What is the capital of Missouri?
Which of these is your favorite?
Who played quarterback in the game last
night?
Whom did she give the note to?
Whose is this?

11. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN OR NOT?
• Which magazine would you rather read?
• Who went to the meeting last night?
• Why is there mud all over the room?
• When do you want to work on the project?
• Whom are you going to the dance with?
• What is your sister’s name?
• Which of these shirts do you like best?
• Which shirt do you like the best?

12. REINFORCE SECTION, page 96
23. My favorite chapter of A Brief History of
Time is the one which tells about black
holes.
ANSWER:
My favorite chapter of A Brief History of Time is
the one that tells about black holes.

13. 24. In this section, Hawking describes what
would happen to a person which flew a
spaceship into a black hole.
25. The black hole’s gravity, that is
immensely powerful, creates forces that
would compress and pull the spaceship
out of shape.
26. People that watched the spaceship from
a distance would see it fall more and
more slowly into the hole.
who
which
who