Relative pronouns are words related to nouns already mentioned in a sentence. The relative pronouns can be invariant, that is, without gender (male or female) and without number (singular or plural): "what", "who" and "where", but also can be variable, for presenting gender and number: "which", "which", "which", "which", "whose", "whose", "whose", "whose", "how much", "how many", “how much” and “how many”.
Read too: Adverbs – class of words that modify a verb, adjective or other adverb
What are relative pronouns?
Do you know what is one substantive? It's a word that we we use to name to a living being, a thing or an idea. For example, the word “chair” is a noun, as it is the name of the thing on which we sit.
Also a noun is the word "cheap", used to name a bug. The word "happiness" is used to name a idea, because happiness is not something you can take, like the chair and the cockroach.
Now that we know what a noun is, we can answer another question. What is one pronoun? is the word that replaces or accompanies the noun
. Thus, the pronoun can indicate who is talking, the person someone is talking to or even the person who is being talked about.
So, imagine that our friend Renato says this to you:
— Me I didn't know that the Juliana she was in Disney. Because Is it over there didn't you tell me anything?
Now, let's separate all speech nouns: “Juliana” (name of a living being) and “Disney” (name of a thing). Ah, let's not forget about “Renato”! Thus, we can point out the pronouns:
Me: replaces the noun “Renato” and indicates who is speaking.
Is it over there: replaces the noun “Juliana” and indicates who Renato is talking about.
We saw an example of how the pronoun replaces the noun, but when does the pronoun accompanies the noun? To explain this, let's read another speech by our friend Renato:
— Juliana is mine funniest friend!
Again, let's separate all the nouns from the speech: “Juliana” (name of a living being) and “friend” (name given to a person who has a friendly relationship with another). After that, we identify the pronoun “my”, which accompanies the noun “friend” and indicates who is speaking, that is, Renato.
By using the pronoun “my”, Renato indicates that Juliana is a friend from him. If you used the pronoun “your”, for example, Renato would indicate who was talking to, that is, with you, since we imagined, at the beginning of the text, that Renato was talking to you. Remember?
However, there are some pronoun types, and we are here to talk especially about one of them. So what are relative pronouns? Here's the definition:
A relative pronoun is a word that refers to a previously mentioned noun.
So when Renato says:
- A house where live is beautiful.
The word "where" is a relative pronoun, because it keeps a relationship with the noun "house", mentioned previously at phrase.
Read too: Preposition - class of words that establish a subordination relationship between terms
What are the relative pronouns?
Relative pronouns | ||
Variables |
Invariables |
|
Male |
Feminine |
|
|
which whose how much |
which whose how much |
|
Singular |
Plural form |
|
|
which whose how many |
which whose how many |
what who Where |
Use of relative pronouns
Why are the relative pronouns “what”, “who” and “where” called invariant? Why they don't change, that is, do not vary. So they don't have gender (male or female) neither number (singular or plural). Look at the examples.
Example 1:
Artemis Fowl stole the fairy book, what is very important in that world.
Substantive: Book of Fairies
Relative pronoun: what
Example 2:
I'm talking about Artemis Fowl, who stole the Book of Fairies.
Substantive: Artemis Fowl
Relative pronoun: who
Example 3:
THE factoryof chocolate, Where live the Umpa-Lumpas, it is simply fantastic.
Substantive: chocolate Factory
Relative pronoun: Where
I think it's now easy to answer why the other relative pronouns are called variables, aren't they? Because they agree, vary, in gender (male or female) and number (singular or plural), with the noun mentioned above. See these examples.
Example 4:
Aninha bought one aquarium, which it will soon be full of fish.
Substantive: aquarium
Relative pronoun: which
Example 5:
Aninha bought two aquariums, which they will soon be full of fish.
Substantive: aquariums
Relative pronoun: which
Also access: How to use relative pronouns?
Example 6:
magali ate one watermelon, which it was very sweet.
Substantive: watermelon
Relative pronoun: which
Example 7:
magali ate two watermelons, which they were very sweet.
Substantive: watermelons
Relative pronoun: which
Example 8:
eat so much candyhow much can.
Substantive: candy
Relative pronoun: how much
Example 9:
eat so many candyhow many can.
Substantive: candy
Relative pronoun: how many
Example 10:
ate all gelatinehow much they gave him.
Substantive: gelatine
Relative pronoun: how much
Example 11:
ate every popcornhow many they gave him.
Substantive: popcorn
Relative pronoun: how many
Use of "whose"
The use of the relative pronoun "whose" it's a little bit different. You know why? Because he agrees on gender (male or female) and number (singular or plural) with the next noun later from him. Even so, it is still related, too, to the noun that comes before. Review the following examples.
Example 12:
O boy, whoseuncle works in the circus, dreams of being a trapeze artist.
nouns: boy, uncle
Relative pronoun: whose
Example 13:
O boy, whosemom works in the circus, dreams of being a trapeze artist.
nouns: boy, mother
Relative pronoun: whose
Example 14:
O boy, whosebrothers they work in the circus, dream of being a trapeze artist.
nouns: boy, brothers
Relative pronoun: whose
Example 15:
O boy, whosesisters they work in the circus, dream of being a trapeze artist.
nouns: boy, sisters
Relative pronoun: whose
The relative pronoun “whose” always carries a ownership ideain betweenyoutwo nouns he refers to. To be clearer, let's go back to the examples.
When we say that:
O boy, whoseuncle works in the circus, dreams of being a trapeze artist.
or
O boy, whosemom works in the circus, dreams of being a trapeze artist.
or
O boy, whosebrothers they work in the circus, dream of being a trapeze artist.
or
O boy, whosesisters they work in the circus, dream of being a trapeze artist.
We are also claiming that it is the boy's uncle, the boy's mother, the boy's brothers and the boy's sisters. Did you notice the possession relationship between nouns? If you haven't noticed, imagine that this boy is our friend Renato. Whose uncle, mother, brothers and sisters then? From Renato! Belongs to Renato!
Attention! what if stand out in the use of the pronoun “whose” is its relation to the two nouns. So, the idea of ownership is implicit, therefore, it is a secondary element. Then, this pronoun is relative, and not possessive.
See too: Use of third person possessive pronoun
solved exercises
Question 1 - Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the appropriate relative pronoun:
Yesterday, it was the pajama party at Amanda's house, _________ is Amora's sister, _________ parents are doctors. We watched a really cool movie and ate as many slices of pizza _________ as we wanted. Eulália's sweet tooth choked, and doctor Alice, _________ is Amanda and Amora's mother, saved Eulália's life. And, after the scare, the party was kind of over, because Eulalia left, all embarrassed. So I went to my cabin, _________ slept and dreamed of a cheese pizza _________ was chasing us in a forest. What a nightmare! But the next sleepover is at my house, and everything will be fine.
Now, mark the alternative that presents the correct sequence of pronouns used to fill in the blanks:
A) that, that the, whose, whose, which, where.
B) which, whose, which, which, where, which.
C) what, which, how many, what, where, what.
D) which, whose, what, which, who, which.
E) which, whose, how many, what, where, what.
Resolution
Alternative E. The pronoun “which” refers to Amanda; “whose”, to Amora and her parents; “how many” to slices of pizza; “that”, to Dr. Alice; “where”, to the cabin; and “que”, to cheese pizza.
Question 2 - Read this excerpt from the book Emilia in the Country of Grammar, by Monteiro Lobato:
“There were also the RELATIVE Pronouns, which serve to indicate something that is behind us. They were: What, Who, Which, Whose, Where, etc., with their respective wives and plurals. Quindim exemplified:
— The Viscount, _________ cardboard is gone, he's damned. [...].
In fact, the Viscount had lost his top hat in the adventure with the Obscene Words. He had left her behind.
"Go on, Quindim," Emilia asked, and the rhino continued."
In Quindim's speech, the relative pronoun used to fill the gap is:
A) which
B) which
C) whose
D) whose
And where
Resolution:
Alternative D. In Quindim's speech, the relative pronoun used is “whose”, as he refers to both the Viscount and his cardboard. Therefore, when Quindim says that “The Viscount, whose card is gone, is damned”, he says that the Viscount is damned, but also that his cardboard is gone.
