Utilizamos los pronombres relativos para referirnos a un sustantivo (una persona o

una cosa) mencionado antes y al que queremos agregar más información o modificar.
Los pronombres relativos pueden referirse a algo o alguien en singular o plural. Algunos
pronombres relativos se pueden usar sólo con personas, otros sólo con cosas y algunos con
ambos. A continuación, tienes una lista de los pronombres relativos.

Pronombre Persona Cosa

 that 
 
x x
que

 which 
 
x
que / cual

 who 
 
x
que / quién

 whom 
 
x
que / a quien

 whose 
 
x x
cuyo

Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)

El pronombre relativo se encuentra en lugar de un sustantivo. Este sustantivo suele

aparecer anteriormente en la oración.

That

“That” es el pronombre relativo más utilizado en el inglés hablado, ya que se puede utilizar
tanto con personas como con cosas. Se utiliza para sustituir“which”, “who” o “whom” en
cláusulas que definen el sustantivo.
Ejemplos:
  This is the book that won the Pulitzer prize last year. (Este es el libro que ganó el Permio
Pulizer el año pasado.)
  This is the restaurant that received the excellent reviews in the newspaper. (Este es el
restaurante que recibió excelentes críticas en el periódico.)

Which

“Which” sólo se puede utilizar con las cosas.

Ejemplos:
  My new job, which I only started last week, is already very stressful. (Mi nuevo trabajo,
que acabo de empezar la semana pasada, ya es muy estresante.)
  The house which we lived in when we were children burnt down last week. (La casa en
la que vivíamos cuando éramos niños se quemó la semana pasada.)

Who

Solo se puede utilizar “who” con personas.

Ejemplos:
  My sister, who just moved in with me, is looking for a job. (Mi hermana, que se acaba de
mudar conmigo, está buscando trabajo.)
  I never met someone who didn’t like music. (Nunca he conocido a alguien que no le guste la
música.)

Whom

“Whom” se utiliza para hacer referencia al objeto indirecto del verbo, pero no lo
utilizamos mucho en inglés coloquial. Más a menudo utilizamos “who” en vez de“whom”.

Ejemplos:
  The woman with whom I was talking to was my cousin. (La mujer con quién estaba
hablando era mi prima.)
  This is Peter, whom I met at the party last week. (Este es Peter, a quien conocí en la fiesta la
semana pasada.)
 Whose

El uso de “whose” indica posesión, tanto para las personas como para las cosas.

Ejemplos:
  That is the girl whose parents got divorced last year. (Esa es la chica cuyos padres se
divorciaron el año pasado.)
  Paul, whose wife just had a baby, will not be at work for a few weeks. (Paul, cuyo esposa
acaba de tener un bebé, no irá a trabajar durante unas semanas.)

When and where and why

Estos adverbios relativos a veces se utilizan en lugar de un pronombre relativo para hacer la
frase más fácil de entender. Estos adverbios se refieren a expresiones de tiempo, lugares o
motivos.

Ejemplos:
  The university where I teach is an excellent school. (La universidad donde enseño es una
escuela excelente.)
  Can you tell me when is the best time to call? (¿Puedes decirme cuando es la mejor hora
para llamar?)
Nota: Puede omitirse el pronombre relativo cuando es el objeto de la frase.

Ejemplos:
  The exam [that] I took this morning won’t be corrected and returned until next
week. (El examen que hice esta mañana no se corregirá ni se devolverá hasta la semana que
viene.)
  The woman [who] I’m dating is a teacher. (La mujer con quien estoy saliendo es profesora.)

Relative Clauses (Cláusulas relativas)

Se utilizan los pronombres relativos para unir dos o más cláusulas, formando así lo que
llamamos “cláusulas relativas”. Hay dos tipos de cláusulas relativas: las que añaden
información adicional y aquellas que modifican (o definen) el sujeto de la oración.
 Non-defining Relative Clauses

Estas cláusulas agregan información adicional. Se utilizan comas para separar la

cláusula relativa del resto de la oración. No se puede utilizar “that” en lugar
de“which” o “who” en este tipo de cláusula.

Ejemplos:
  My friend Tony, who is an excellent writer, is helping me with my English paper. (Mi
amigo Tony, quien es un escritor excelente, está ayudándome con mi redacción de inglés.)
  The report, which my boss asked me to write last week, still isn’t finished. (El informe,
que mi jefe me pidió que escribiera la semana pasada, todavía no está terminado.)

Defining Relative Clauses

Estas cláusulas definen el sustantivo e identifican a qué cosa o persona nos referimos. No
se usan comas con este tipo de cláusula.

Ejemplos:
  I wrote the report that you asked for. (Escribí el informe que me pidió.)
  She never met the man who saved her father’s life. (Nunca conoció al hombre que salvó la
vida de su padre.)
Nota: El significado de la frase cambia dependiendo de qué tipo de cláusula relativa se
utiliza.

Ejemplos:
  The employees who worked long hours completed their projects on time.(Los empleados
que trabajaban largas horas terminaron sus proyectos a tiempo.) 
Nota: Sólo los que trabajaron muchas horas terminaron los proyectos a tiempo.
  The employees, who worked long hours, completed their projects on time. (Los
empleados, que trabajaron muchas horas, terminaron sus proyectos a tiempo.) Nota: Todos los
empleados terminaron los proyectos a tiempo.
 1. The relative pronouns:

The relative pronouns are:
 

 Possessiv
Subject  Object
e

who whom, who whose

whic
which whose
h

that that  

We use who and whom for people, and which for things.

We use that for people or things.

We use relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses, which tell us

more about people and things.

2. Relative clauses to postmodify a noun 

We use relative clauses to postmodify a noun - to make clear which

person or thing we are talking about. In these clauses we can have the
relative pronoun who, which, whose or that

 as subject (see Clauses Sentences and Phrases)

 Isn’t that the woman who lives across the road from you?
The police said the accident that happened last night was
unavoidable
The newspaper reported that the tiger which killed its keeper
has been put down.

WARNING:
The relative pronoun is the subject of the clause.
We do not repeat the subject:

*The woman who [she] lives across the road…

*The tiger which [it] killed its keeper …

 as object of a clause (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)

Have you seen those people who we met on holiday?

You shouldn’t believe everything that you read in the
newspaper.
The house that we rented in London was fully furnished.
The food was definitely the thing which I enjoyed most about
our holiday.

- Sometimes we use whom instead of who when the relative

pronoun is the object:

Have you seen those people whom we met on holiday?

- When the relative pronoun is object of its clause we

sometimes leave it out:

Have you seen those people we met on holiday?

You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.
The house we rented in London was fully furnished.
The food was definitely the thing I enjoyed most about our
holiday.

WARNING:
The relative pronoun is the object of the clause.
We do not repeat the object:
 Have you seen those people who we met [them] on holiday?
The house that we rented [it] in London was fully furnished.
The food was definitely the thing I enjoyed [it] most about our
holiday.

 as object of a preposition. When the relative pronoun is the object of a

preposition we usually put the preposition after the verb.:

You were talking to a woman >>> Who was the woman who you
were talking to?
My parents live in that house >>> That’s the house that my
parents live in.
You were talking about a book. I haven’t read it. >>> I haven’t
read the book which you were talking about.

- When the relative pronoun is the object of a preposition we

usually leave it out:

Who was the woman you were talking to?

That’s the house my parents live in.

- Sometimes we use whom instead of who:

Who was that woman whom you were talking about.

- When we use whom, which or whose the preposition

sometimes comes at the beginning of the clause:

I haven’t read the book about which you were talking.

- We can use the possessive form, whose, in a relative clause:

I always forget that woman’s name >>> That’s the woman

whose name I always forget.
I met a man whose brother works in Moscow.

3. Times and places

We also use when with times and where with places to make it

clear which time or place we are talking about:
 England won the world cup in 1996. It was the year when we got
married.
I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day when the
tsunami happened.
Do you remember the place where we caught the train?
Stratford-upon-Avon is the town where Shakespeare was born.

... but we can leave out the word when:

England won the world cup in 1996. It was the year we got

married.
I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day the
tsunami happened.

4. Giving additional information

 We use who, whom, whose, and which (but not that) in relative

clauses to tell us more about a person or thing.

 as subject (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)

My uncle, who was born in Hong Kong, lived most of his life

overseas.
I have just read Orwell’s 1984, which is one of the most
frightening books ever written.

WARNING:
The relative pronoun is the subject of the clause.
We do not repeat the subject:

My uncle, who [he] was born in Hong Kong, lived most of his life

overseas.
I have just read Orwell’s 1984, which [it] is one of the most
frightening books ever written.

 as object (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases)

 We saw the latest Harry Potter film, which we really enjoyed.
My favourite actor is Marlon Brando, who I saw in “On the
Waterfront”.

- we can use whom instead of who as object:

My favourite actor was Marlon Brando, whom I saw in “On the

Waterfront”.

WARNING:
The relative pronoun is the object of the clause.
We do not repeat the object:

We saw the latest Harry Potter film, which we really enjoyed [it].

My favourite actor is Marlon Brando, who I saw [him] in “On the
Waterfront”.

 as object of a clause :

He finally met Paul McCartney, whom he had always admired.

We are going back to Venice, which we first visited thirty
years ago.

We can also use who as the object.

He finally met Paul McCartney, who he had always admired.

WARNING:
The relative pronoun is the object of the clause.
We do not repeat the object:

He finally met Paul McCartney, whom he had always

admired [him].
We are going back to Venice, which we first visited [it] thirty
years ago.

 as object of a preposition:

He decided to telephone Mrs. Jackson, who he had read about in

the newspaper.
That’s the programme which we listened to last night.
 - We sometimes use whom instead of who:

He decided to telephone Mrs. Jackson, whom he had read about

in the newspaper.

- The preposition sometimes comes in front of the relative

pronoun whom or which:

He decided to telephone Mrs. Jackson, about whom he had read

in the newspaper.
That’s the programme to which we listened last night.

5.  Quantifiers and numbers with relative pronouns

 We often use quantifiers and numbers with relative pronouns:

many of whom - most of whom - one of which - none of

whom
some of which - lots of whom - two of which - etc.

We can use them as subject, object or object of a preposition.

She has three brothers, two of whom are in the army.

I read three books last week, one of which I really enjoyed.
There were some good programmes on the radio, none of
which I listened to.

6. Using  "which" to give more information

We often use the relative pronoun which to say something about

a clause:

He was usually late, which always annoyed his father.

We’ve missed our train, which means we may be late.