IXL | Use relative pronouns: who and whom

Complete the sentence with the best relative pronoun.

Computing pioneer Charles Babbage famously collaborated with Ada Lovelace, iiiiiiiiiiiiifnn some historians call the first computer programmer.

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question

Complete the sentence with the best relative pronoun.

Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy corresponded for fourteen years with Father Joseph Leonard, iiiiiiiiiiiiifnn she had met while on a family visit to Ireland in 1950.

key idea

A relative pronoun introduces a relative clause that describes a noun or pronoun.

The relative pronouns who and whom give information about people.

To figure out whether to use who or whom, restate the relative clause with a personal pronoun. If the clause uses a subject pronoun (he, she, or they), use who. If the clause uses an object pronoun (him, her, or them), use whom.

The woman who lives next door grows tomatoes in her garden.

She lives next door.

Peter, whom you met yesterday, has four younger brothers.

You met him yesterday.

solution

The dependent clause gives information about a person. You can restate the dependent clause with the object pronoun him, so use the relative pronoun whom.

Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy corresponded for fourteen years with Father Joseph Leonard, whom she had met while on a family visit to Ireland in 1950.

The dependent clause can be restated as "She had met him while on a family visit to Ireland in 1950."

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Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

Z.1Identify and correct errors with subject and object pronouns

JJ.1Choose between subject and object pronouns

II.8Identify relative pronouns

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