Explain when to use each pronuon and the difference between the two types of relative of relative

1 answer

Pronouns are used to replace nouns in a sentence to avoid repetition and make the language more concise. There are different types of pronouns, such as personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, etc. Let's focus on personal pronouns and relative pronouns.

Personal pronouns are used to refer to specific people or things. They can be further categorized into subject pronouns (I, you, he/she/it, we, they) and object pronouns (me, you, him/her/it, us, them). Subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence, whereas object pronouns are used as the object of a sentence.

Examples:
- Subject pronoun: She is a doctor.
- Object pronoun: I gave the book to him.

Relative pronouns, on the other hand, are used to introduce relative clauses, which provide extra information about a noun in the sentence. There are two types of relative pronouns: restrictive and non-restrictive.

1. Restrictive Relative Pronouns:
These pronouns introduce essential or necessary information about the noun they refer to. They do not use commas before or after them. The most common restrictive relative pronouns are "who," "whom," "that," and "whose."

Examples:
- The boy who is sitting over there won the contest.
- The house that we visited last week is for sale.

2. Non-Restrictive Relative Pronouns:
These pronouns introduce additional or non-essential information about the noun they refer to. They are separated by commas before and after them. The most common non-restrictive relative pronouns are "who," "whom," "which," "whose," and "that."

Examples:
- My sister, who is a teacher, loves to read books.
- My car, which is parked outside, needs to be repaired.

In summary, personal pronouns are used to replace nouns and can be either subject pronouns or object pronouns. Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses that provide additional information about a noun. They can be either restrictive or non-restrictive, depending on whether the information is necessary or additional.