Trickier Relative Pronouns.

Trickier relative pronouns

Four relative pronouns often seem to confuse people, but they're easy to use too.

WHICH

This can be used to refer to the whole part of the sentence that went before. Usually a pronoun refers to a noun, but this refers to more. For example:

I've broken my leg, which means I can't walk.
I've still got some money left, which is surprising.

WHOM

This is hardly ever used in spoken English, and not often in written English. It sounds very formal to most people. If you're going to use it at all, then only use it after prepositions. Even so, there's usually another less formal way to say the same thing. For example:

The woman to whom he was talking is his sister.
The woman that he was talking to is his sister.

WHOSE

This is used to show possession. It means basically 'of who(m)'. It can always be used for people and animals, but also for things, though this sometimes sounds strange and it might be better to change the structure of the sentence unless the thing is made up of people (a team, a city, an organisation). For example:

My students, whose homework is never done, will fail the exam.
The homework belongs to the students, it's theirs, so possessive.

That dog whose bone you took is going to bite your leg off.
It is - or was - the dog's bone.

The city, whose football team lost the final, never wins anything.
The city's made up of people, so it sounds OK.

WHAT

This can be literally translated to mean 'the thing that' or 'that which'. It is not used anywhere near as often as 'which' or 'that' and is not used in the same way. For example:

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
I didn't know what he was going to do next.