relative pronoun

American  

noun

• relative pronouns
  plural

1. one of the pronouns who, whom, which, what, their compounds with -ever or -soever, or that used as the subordinating word to introduce a subordinate clause, especially such a pronoun referring to an antecedent.

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Commonly Confused

See who.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• relative pronouns
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of relative pronoun

First recorded in 1520–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relative pronoun

The English language adds more physical weight and hard sound, with the audibility of the relative pronoun, "that", and the predominance of masculine line-endings contributory factors.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 11, 2013

The same expression may stand thus: ni-c-nequia-tlagotlaz, where the c is an intercalated relative pronoun, and the literal rendering is, “I it wished, I shall love.”

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Daniel Garrison Brinton

When using the relative pronoun, use who or which, if the meaning is and he or and it, for he or for it.

From Word Study and English Grammar A Primer of Information about Words, Their Relations and Their Uses by Frederick W. (Frederick William) Hamilton

You can not fail to observe the true character of this word called by our grammarians "adjective pronoun," "relative pronoun," and "conjunction."

From Lectures on Language As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. by William Stevens Balch

Antecedent—That to which a relative pronoun or a relative clause refers.

From Punctuation A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically by Frederick W. (Frederick William) Hamilton

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