The Grammar Business Part Two Title of Short Course Course Tutor The Grammar Business Part Two 3. Some pronouns

Pronouns usually stand in for nouns - so the woman ( a noun) could be referred to as ‘she’ (a pronoun) that man ( a noun) could be referred to as ‘him’ (pronoun)

Personal pronouns refer to people and things, for example you he she it we they

And a pronoun, like a noun, can be the subject of the sentence She is going to Paris. She has a mean and nasty nature. I give you the instructions and you obey them. Right?

You can use a relative pronoun to introduce the extra information Like If you want to give more information about the subject - or object - of a sentence You can use a relative pronoun to introduce the extra information Like who which where what that

For example: She was the woman who had stolen my purse. The cream, which was already six days old, had gone completely sour. We searched even in places where we’d already looked.

The relative pronoun allows you neatly to insert information inside the same sentence. So you can use relative pronouns, in some cases, to join two sentence strings Like this: She was the woman. She had stolen my purse. She was the woman who had stolen my purse.

Common errors 1 Making the relative pronoun start a new sentence, instead of including its word group inside the first one e.g. She was the woman. Who had attacked me. (wrong) It should have been: She was the woman who had attacked me. (right)

Common errors 2 Using the wrong relative pronoun Who refers to a person Which or that refers to a thing So what’s wrong with the following sentences?

Correct the errors She is the woman which served me yesterday. James is the man that told me where to go.

Those sentences should have read She is the woman who served me yesterday. James is the man who me where to go.

Common errors 3 Using a relative pronoun and then using a noun or pronoun AS WELL! Like this This is the bag which it is already full. This is the bag which I have already filled it.

Those sentences should have read This is the bag which is already full. This is the bag which I have already filled.

Common errors 4 Using ‘who’ instead of ‘whom’ Using ‘whom’ instead of ‘who’. How can you tell which is correct?

The who/whom confusion Remember the personal pronouns? I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Some pronouns can change their form It depends whether they are subject or object of the sentence sounds complicated, but it isn’t really look at some examples

Subject and object forms I have killed him (I is the subject, him is the object). He has killed me (He is the subject, me is the object)

How they change Subject I You He She It We They Object Me You (no change) Him Her It (no change) Us Them

So you can see that Who is the subject form and Whom is the object form

Who/whom is the only relative pronoun that changes in this way people often think ‘whom’ sounds posher and therefore use it in the wrong place hardly anybody uses ‘whom’ in speech - but it is correct to use it in writing - provided you use it in the right place.

To check which you want, who or whom, test out the phrase by substituting he / him If the substitute comes up ‘him’, what you need is ‘whom’ If the substitute makes sense with ‘he’, then the relative pronoun will be ‘who’

Who? Whom? Try it. He is the man who/whom tore my report to shreds. Tom Cruise was the man who/whom Nicole Kidman married. Catch the man who/whom ran over my dog. She is a woman who/whom I would never trust in a million years.

Who? Whom? Answers He is the man who tore my report to shreds. Tom Cruise was the man whom Nicole Kidman married. Catch the man who ran over my dog. She is a woman whom I would never trust in a million years.

I haven’t yet mentioned ‘whose’ Common Errors 5 I haven’t yet mentioned ‘whose’ ‘Whose’ is a relative pronoun that shows possession For example This is the man whose wife I stole. She had a mother, whose name was Sarah.

You can only use ‘whose’ of a person. Using whose You can only use ‘whose’ of a person. If talking about a thing, it is more correct to say ‘of which’ For example She gave me an emerald, the colour of which was a perfect green.

Spelling problem? Quite often people spell the possessive whose wrongly They write who’s Who’s always means who is

Common errors 6 Using ‘what’ when you need ‘which’ When choice is involved, you have to use ‘which’ and not ‘what’ For example: She wasn’t sure which way to go (not what way to go) Or: She couldn’t decide which chocolate to take (not what chocolate) He wasn’t sure which woman to believe (not what woman)

To check your understanding of all these things Look at Handout Three