IXL | Use relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, and that

Complete the sentence with the best relative pronoun.

Ray Charles, iiiiiiiiiiiiifnn childhood was spent surrounded by country, blues, jazz, and gospel music, was one of the originators of soul music.

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

Complete the sentence with the best relative pronoun.

The Pruitts' coffee table—repurposed from an old door, with shelves and drawers from a discarded desk—was built by Mr. Pruitt, iiiiiiiiiiiiifnn handy skills are evident throughout their home.

key idea

A relative pronoun introduces a relative clause that describes a noun or pronoun. The five main relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, and that.

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.

The relative pronoun that gives necessary information about things. Necessary information narrows down what you're talking about and is not set off by commas.

We walked to a park that has a tire swing.

The information narrows down which park we walked to. It is necessary.

The relative pronoun which adds unnecessary information about things. This extra information does not narrow down what you're talking about. It is always set off by commas.

We walked to Glendale Park, which has a tire swing.

The information is extra. It does not narrow down which park we walked to.

The relative pronoun whose shows possession.

Emily, whose hair is quite long, likes wearing braids.

Do not confuse whose with who's. Who's is a contraction for who is or who has. It does not show possession.

Emily, who's quite tall, can reach the top shelf.

Emily, who is quite tall, can reach the top shelf.

solution

The dependent clause shows possession, so use the relative pronoun whose. Remember, who's is a contraction for who is or who has. It does not show possession.

The Pruitts' coffee table—repurposed from an old door, with shelves and drawers from a discarded desk—was built by Mr. Pruitt, whose handy skills are evident throughout their home.

$Confetti$

Excellent!

Now entering the Challenge Zone—are you ready?

Questions
answeredQuestions

Time
elapsedTime

hr	min	sec
00	00	06

SmartScore
out of 100
IXL's SmartScore is a dynamic measure of progress towards mastery, rather than a percentage grade. It tracks your skill level as you tackle progressively more difficult questions. Consistently answer questions correctly to reach excellence (90), or conquer the Challenge Zone to achieve mastery (100)! Learn more

Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

II.7Use relative pronouns: who and whom

II.10Use relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, and that

Excellent! You got that right!

Jumping to level 1 of 1

Excellent!