TENSE TUESDAY: PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES
24 / 11 / 2015
TENSE TUESDAY: PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES: meaning and examples
Welcome to Tense Tuesday, everyone! Are you ready for a little grammar?
Today we are looking at PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES. Relative Clauses begin with a relative pronoun (for example, the words THAT, WHICH or WHO) and give us more information about the noun in a sentence.
Example 1: Jim is the guy who sold me the tickets to the concert.
Example 2: This is the building that we lived in when I was a child.
Example 3: This is the city which the movie was based on.
In Example 3, the sentence ends with a preposition. In spoken English, this is OK, but in very formal English it is better not to end a sentence with a preposition, if possible. Instead, we can change the sentence to something like this:
Example 4 (formal): This is the book on which the movie was based.
Let's look at another.
Example 5: This is the material which the dress is made from.
Example 6 (formal): This is the material from which the dress is made.
There is one important thing to remember: WHOM is the relative clause that represents a noun Object of a sentence. Consider example 7 below.
Example 7: She is the person whom the dress was made for.
In this case, PERSON (= SHE) is the object of the verb MAKE ("the dress was made for her"). However, WHO is often used instead of WHOM, especially in conversation.
Example 8: She is the person who the dress was made for.
But remember that if we move the preposition directly before the relative clause (preposition/relative pronoun switch), then we must use WHOM.
Example 9: She is the person for whom the dress was made.
That's all for today! You are, as always, the readers for whom these Daily Vitamin posts are written. I hope you enjoy them.
Today we are looking at PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES. Relative Clauses begin with a relative pronoun (for example, the words THAT, WHICH or WHO) and give us more information about the noun in a sentence.
Example 1: Jim is the guy who sold me the tickets to the concert.
Example 2: This is the building that we lived in when I was a child.
Example 3: This is the city which the movie was based on.
In Example 3, the sentence ends with a preposition. In spoken English, this is OK, but in very formal English it is better not to end a sentence with a preposition, if possible. Instead, we can change the sentence to something like this:
Example 4 (formal): This is the book on which the movie was based.
Let's look at another.
Example 5: This is the material which the dress is made from.
Example 6 (formal): This is the material from which the dress is made.
There is one important thing to remember: WHOM is the relative clause that represents a noun Object of a sentence. Consider example 7 below.
Example 7: She is the person whom the dress was made for.
In this case, PERSON (= SHE) is the object of the verb MAKE ("the dress was made for her"). However, WHO is often used instead of WHOM, especially in conversation.
Example 8: She is the person who the dress was made for.
But remember that if we move the preposition directly before the relative clause (preposition/relative pronoun switch), then we must use WHOM.
Example 9: She is the person for whom the dress was made.
That's all for today! You are, as always, the readers for whom these Daily Vitamin posts are written. I hope you enjoy them.
