Line英会話クラス

Lesson Plan July 21 2023

Topic: Relative Clauses 03 (Whose / Where / Whom)

In this lesson we will look at relative clauses using whose / where / whom.

In English, a relative clause is part of a sentence, it can begin with which, who, that, where or whose.

Section A

Whose; we use whose instead of his / her / their

• I met a woman whose name was Cynthia. (=I met a woman. Her name was Cynthia.)

Where; we use where when we are talking about place

• I can’t remember the name of the hotel where we stayed last year in Rome.

Whom; it’s possible to use whom instead of who when it is the object of the verb in a relative clause.

• George is a person whom I admire very much. (= I admire him)

Important Points

• Whom can also be used with a preposition (to whom / from whom / with whom etc)

  • I like the people with whom I work. (= I work with them)

• Whom is a formal word and we often do not use it in this way. We usually prefer to use who or that, or nothing.

  • … a person (who / that) I admire a lot
    … a person I admire a lot

  • … the people (who / that) I work with
    … the people I work with

Section B

We use whose mostly for people

• A widow is a woman whose husband is dead. (= her husband is dead)

• What’s the name of the man whose car you borrowed last weekend? (= you borrowed his car)

• I met someone whose brother I went to school with. (= I went to school with (his / her) brother)

Compare who and whose

• I met a man who knows you. (= He knows you) (NOT a man whose knows you)

• I met a man whose sister knows you. (= His sister knows you) (NOT a man who sister knows you)

Section C

We use where to talk about a place

• The restaurant where we had lunch was near the airport. (= We had lunch at a restaurant. It was near the airport.)

• I recently went back to the town where I grew up to visit my family.

• I would like to live in a place where there is less humidity in summer.

Section D

When we say the day / the year / the time etc we can use that or nothing in a relative clause

• I can’t meet you on Friday. That’s the day (that) I’m going away.

• The last time (that) I saw Anna, she looked great.

• I haven’t seen Jack and Helen since the year (that) they got married.

When we say the reason we can use that / why or nothing

• The reason (that / why) I am phoning is to ask your advice.
  The reason I am phoning is to ask your advice.

• The reason (that / why) we are late is the trains are running behind schedule.
  The reason we are late is the trains are running behind schedule.

Lesson Notes

• Localized; (adj) happening only in a particular place or area

• The forecast is calling for localized rain across the city. Don’t forget your umbrella!

• A couple tells you “We’ve just gotten married.”

• I met a couple who has just gotten married. (“Couple” is treated as singular noun)

• I met a couple who have just gotten married. (“Couple” is treated as a plural noun; this is more commonly used)

• I met a couple who had just gotten married. (“Had” is used in past tense because the action of getting married happened before the of the meeting)

• Who or Whom

• The man who you met yesterday is my uncle! (In modern English this is commonly used and generally accepted.)

• The man whom you met yesterday is my uncle! (Appropriate for following strict formal grammar rules)