relative pronoun

American  

noun

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.

Etymology

Origin of relative pronoun

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

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

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 Hamilton, Frederick W. (Frederick William)

Also, by the way, in its careless rapture it twice misrelates the relative pronoun; and Froude was a master of style.

From Brother Copas by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir

Agreement, kinds of, 275. of adjective with noun, 303. of personal pronoun with antecedent, 287. of relative pronoun with antecedent, 291. of verb with subject, 148, 316.

From An English Grammar by Sewell, James Witt

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From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison