Relative Pronouns (1) – who, which, that
Read the following sentences and decide which relative pronoun could be used to fill each gap.
Choose between who, which and that.
In some sentences, is more than one option possible?
Activity 1
1. The elderly lady ______ was sitting in the park yesterday is my nan.
2. Have you seen the new film ______ stars Angelina?
3. I can’t find the pen _____ I bought last week.
4. I love that guy _____ does the impersonation of Tony Abbott.
5. A hotspot is a device _______ lets you get onto the internet anywhere.
6. The woman ______ Mark is currently working with in accounts wears amazing shoes.
Activity 2
We use relative clauses to define nouns / noun-units. Complete each of the following sentences with a
relative clause that defines the noun / noun-unit each time and which reflects your personal preferences:
1. I prefer the sort of people _______________________________________________
2. I don’t like films _______________________________________________________
3. I like children _________________________________________________________
4. I love stories __________________________________________________________
5. I really don’t enjoy food _________________________________________________
Relative Pronouns (2) – where, when, whose, why, which
Activity 3
Read the following sentences and fill the gaps with a suitable relative pronoun.
1. That is the house _______ I met my future wife.
2. The inspectors came on the day ________ just about everything went wrong.
3. Can you tell me the reason _______ my bank account has been frozen?
4. The detective pointed to the man _______ shoes had left the footprints in the kitchen.
5. The time ______ the last train departs will be too early for us to catch.
6. She couldn’t find the shop ________ she had bought the handbag just the day before.
7. The town ______ I grew up has changed beyond all recognition.
8. Relative clauses can cause problems for learners ______ first language is very different from English.
9. Her husband died, ________ was the beginning of her depression.
10. We had to leave before the fireworks started, ________ was a great pity.
Is it possible to change any of these relative pronouns to “that”? If so, would any other changes need to be
made to the sentence?
Activity 4 – How Many Ways?
How many ways can you express the underlined element in following sentence without changing its
position in the sentence and without changing the meaning of the whole sentence? Indicate whether each
version is more commonly spoken, written, or both.
The lady that’s wearing the white hat is my aunt.