What Is a Relative Pronoun and How Does It Work?

A relative pronoun is a word that introduces a dependent (or relative) clause and connects it to an independent clause. A clause beginning with a relative pronoun is poised to answer questions such as Which one? How many? or What kind? Who, whom, what, which, and that are all relative pronouns.

Relative clauses are also sometimes referred to as adjective clauses, because they identify or give us additional information about the subject of the independent clause they relate to. Like adjectives, these clauses in some way describe that subject. Relative pronouns, like conjunctions, are words that join clauses—in this case, a relative clause to its main clause. The type of relative pronoun used depends on what kind of noun is being described.

Who: Refers to a person (as the verb’s subject)

Whom: Refers to a person (as the verb’s object)

Which: Refers to an animal or thing

What: Refers to a nonliving thing

That: Refers to a person, animal, or thing

The woman who came to the door left flowers for you.

I am not sure whom this book belongs to.

Interpretative dance, which I find a bit disconcerting, is all the rage.

Is this what you were talking about?

She finally visited the coffee shop that had such great reviews.

Possessive Relative Pronouns

It surprises some people to learn that both who and which can take the possessive form whose. Some will argue that of which is a better construction when talking about things rather than people, but this results in unnecessary awkwardness. The truth is that whose has been widely and correctly applied to nonhumans for hundreds of years.

She apologized to the boy whose glasses got broken.

The house whose owner is on vacation has an unsightly garden.

The house, the owner of which is on vacation, has an unsightly garden. (This is correct but cumbersome.)

Compound Relative Pronouns

The term compound relative pronoun sounds complex, but it really isn’t. Simply put, compound relative pronouns apply universally to a number of people or things. They include whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.

Please tell whoever may call that I am not available.

Whomever you hire will be fine with me.

Whichever train you take from here, you will end at Charing Cross station.

Carly will be successful at whatever she chooses to do in life.

Grammar Conundrum No. 1: That vs. Which

Two relative pronouns whose functions are easily confused are that and which.

Here’s a tip: The rule of thumb is this: that introduces a restrictive clause, and which introduces a nonrestrictive clause.

A restrictive clause is an essential part of its sentence; if it were taken out of the sentence, the sentence’s meaning would change. Nonrestrictive clauses are just the opposite.

The wardrobe that has the fur coats in it leads to Narnia.

If we were to excise the clause “that has the fur coats in it” from the sentence, the meaning of the sentence would change. We would no longer know which wardrobe leads to a magical land with talking animals, which was the intention of the sentence. This kind of clause gets a that. The word which, on the other hand, should introduce a nonessential clause that can be removed from a sentence without changing the sentence’s meaning.

The wardrobe, which contains several fur coats, leads to Narnia.

Here, “which contains several fur coats” is a parenthetical remark that can be removed without materially altering the sentence. Nonrestrictive (or nonessential) clauses are set off with commas, as shown in the example above.

Grammar Conundrum No. 2: Who vs. That

Not every style guide agrees on whether that is an acceptable relative pronoun to use when referring to people. To some, the following sentence may sound incorrect.

The teacher that gives out candy is always the students’ favorite.

The truth is, this sentence is perfectly fine. Yet you may want to consider that your readers could disagree. Go with the safer bet, who.

The teacher who gives out candy is always the students’ favorite.

Grammar Conundrum No. 3: Keep Pronouns and Antecedents Close

An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun refers to. To ensure clarity, place an antecedent immediately before the relative pronoun referring to it.

The park at the end of our street, which is pristine, is a favorite place of mine.

An unnecessary ambiguity is created in this sentence. What is pristine, the park or the street? Reordering the sentence can help, but rewriting it would be even better.

The pristine park at the end of our street is a favorite place of mine.

And that’s the relative pronoun in a nutshell. Relatively painless, wasn’t it?

Grammar Basics: What Is the Perfect Form of “Be”?

Many of the most commonly used nouns have irregular conjugations in the past simple and perfect forms. “To be” is one of these. Learn more about perfect forms.

To learn more about grammar and to help us celebrate National Grammar Day this March, visit our new resource page.

Robots and English

There’s a harsh reality we need to face—a robotic, AI-driven Shakespeare is nowhere in sight. No robot will write verse that influences English the way Bard’s did anytime soon. You won’t find an AI spitting rhymes like Rakim or Nas, either.

But if your standards aren’t too high, there is some AI-constructed poetry you can read today. Take an AI that uses the recurrent neural network language model technique, feed it thousands of romantic novels to learn language from, give it a starting sentence and an ending sentence, instruct it to fill the gap between them, and you’ll get something like this:

this was the only way. it was the only way. it was her turn to blink. it was hard to tell. it was time to move on. he had to do it again. they all looked at each other. they all turned to look back. they both turned to face him. they both turned and walked away.

This AI, designed by Google, Stanford University, and the University of Massachusetts, isn’t supposed to be the world’s first artificial poet—it’s just a side effect. And the AI’s output isn’t even this good a lot of the time. But if you keep in mind that the AI generated all of the sentences except the first and last on its own, it’s impressive that they all make sense and have a common theme. Apps, AI, and robots are very far from understanding language in the same way we do, but the things they can do are amazing.

Parsey McParseface is an English language parser Google built and released earlier this year, along with the code for SyntaxNet, a framework for a syntactic parser. If you put a sentence into Parsey McParseface, it will analyze it, identify the parts of speech, and determine their functions. This isn’t the first parsing algorithm, but it might be the most accurate. According to Google, Parsey does its thing with a 94 percent accuracy rate.

We know that virtual assistants can recognize what we’re saying, most of the time. Good proofreading software can catch more than just spelling mistakes and can have a noticeable impact on a person’s writing. But do you think machines could ever read your lips? If you’ve ever tried it yourself, you’ll know how hard it is, and even people who know how to read lips are only successful half of the time. LipNet, a neural network architecture under development by Oxford University, can achieve up to 93.4 percent accuracy. This can be very helpful to people with hearing impairments, but it can also help all of us communicate with machines better. If for nothing else, than to be sure they understand when we tell them they should stop trying to write poetry.

Which List Should You Use for Your Project? Quiz

List-making can turn your natural talents and passions into superhuman productivity. It’s a skill that needs to be honed, but whatever your project, there’s a list technique for you. If you want to take your list-making game to the next level, take the quiz to find out which list you should use to organize your next project!

What is your favorite kind of list? Which list will you use for your next project?

Anymore vs. Any More

Is anymore one word or two? It depends on how you’re using it. We’re here to set the record straight.

Any more and anymore have related meanings, but they’re not interchangeable. Whether you make anymore one word or two depends on how you’re using it. Any more refers to quantities (Would you like any more tea?). Anymore is an adverb that refers to time (I don’t like tea anymore.).

Any More and Anymore: A Detailed Explanation

When spelled as two words, any more refers to quantities.

Are there any more cookies?

You already ate seven; you don’t need any more!

When spelled as one word, anymore is an adverb that refers to time. It means “at present,” “still,” or “any longer.”

Why doesn’t Mom bake cookies anymore?

She doesn’t bake cookies anymore because you always eat them all and don’t leave any for her!

In certain dialects, some speakers use anymore as a synonym of nowadays.

Cookies are almost impossible to come by around here anymore.

However, this usage is not considered acceptable in formal writing. In fact, it’s a fairly rare usage, so you may want to remove it from your writing altogether unless you’re writing for a very specific audience.

The problem with anymore is the same problem many writers have with words like “anyway”, “anytime”, and “sometime”—each of them can be written as one or two words.

Just remember: If you’re talking about a quantity of something, use any more. If you’re talking about time, use anymore.

What Does Imperative Mean?

Imperative can be one of the following:

• An adjective meaning “completely necessary” or “very important,” but also “commanding.”
• A noun meaning “a necessity” or “something that is not avoidable,” but also “a command.”
• In grammar, imperative is also one of the four main verb moods.

Imperative is one of those words that shouldn’t be thrown around unless there’s a very good reason for it. Not everything in the word is imperative, or an imperative. But if you’re not sure what the definition of imperative is and what it has to do with imperative sentences, you’re in the right place. We’ll explain what imperative means, how to use it in a sentence, and how imperative sentences are different from indicative sentences.

Imperative Definition

When you define the word imperative, you should note that it can be an adjective and a noun. In both cases, imperative has two distinct meanings: one of urgency, necessity, and importance and another of trying to influence other people’s actions.

The adjective imperative means that something is of the utmost importance or necessity. It can also mean that something is commanding. Similarly, the noun imperative means “something of the utmost importance or necessity”—something imperative. It also means “a command.”

What Is an Imperative Sentence?

Imperative can be traced all the way back to the Latin word imperare, which means “to command.” This is the sense in which the word is used today in grammar, and you might have seen it going together with the words mood and sentence.

The imperative mood is one of the four main verb moods in the English language. As opposed to verb tenses, which indicate time, moods indicate states. The imperative mood indicates the state of commanding. Here’s an example of an imperative sentence:

Sit down and eat your lunch.

In this sentence, someone is giving a command. It can be easily distinguished from indicative sentences, which simply state that something has happened:

He sat down and ate his lunch.

In case you’ve noticed that imperative sentences sometimes don’t have a subject, you should know that they do, even if it’s not actually written in the sentence. You is the subject in this case, but since it’s not written, it’s called you understood, and it’s written as (you).

Imperative—How to Use It

If you’re wondering how to use the word imperative in a sentence—simply put it there when you want to describe something as very important. The place of imperative on the scale of adjectives that imply importance is debatable, but it is certain that something that is imperative is more important than something that is nonessential, trivial, unimportant, or optional. These words are the antonyms of imperative. Its synonyms include the words crucial, vital, critical, and pressing.

On the other hand, imperative can also be used to say that something is commanding. So a person who speaks with an imperative tone of voice is probably a person who is used to issuing commands.

As for the imperative mood, you make it by taking the infinitive of a verb and removing to. Use it when you want to issue commands and orders, but also when you want to make requests—just remember to add please to the sentence.

Imperative Examples

In my view, mediamacro and its focus on the deficit played an important role in winning the Conservatives the 2015 general election. —New Statesman

It was “imperative” that the rules ensured bosses could not avoid their responsibilities to pay pensions, they added. —BBC

“Acting East” is no longer just an option but an imperative for Indian foreign policy. —The Japan Times

The need for an honest evaluation of the military’s flaws and failures becomes an imperative for those with a sincere and substantive desire to “support the troops.” —Salon

5 Children’s Books You Should Read As an Adult

Many of us have special memories of books that changed our worlds as children. I’ll never forget snuggling up next to my dad while he read a section of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia to my brother and me each night before bed. Here are five books and series for kids that we recommend re-reading as an adult:

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder Based on Wilder’s experiences growing up on the American frontier, the Little House series paints an intimate portrait of an exciting time in American history. Read along as Laura and her family encounter bears, battle the elements, and survive in the early American West.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein While this popular children’s book is intended for young readers, adults have found inspiration within its pages, too. The Giving Tree tells the story of a boy growing up alongside a tree and the relationship of give and take between them. It’s a short picture book and worth another read from an adult perspective.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince is one of those rare children’s books that captivates young readers on one level and touches the hearts of adult readers on another. On the surface, it is about a pilot who crashes his plane in the desert and encounters a strange young boy who has traveled from his home on a distant asteroid. At a deeper level, The Little Prince is a story about being present in your own life — about paying attention to everyday pleasures and making time for friends.

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl Many people are familiar with Wes Anderson’s movie adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox, but if you haven’t read the book, you’re missing out. Roald Dahl is the author of many other favorite children’s books, including James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda. Pick up Fantastic Mr. Fox to enjoy a fun-filled journey through the animal world.

Daddy’s Little Girl by Peter Wilson Daddy’s Little Girl tells the story of a father’s love for his daughter through the years. The book is short and sweet and guaranteed to bring a tear to most fathers’ and daughters’ eyes.

Which books for children do you recommend rereading as an adult? Share your favorites in the comments!