The Grammar Business Part Two

1. The Grammar BusinessPart Two 3. Some pronouns

2. Pronouns usually stand in for nouns - so • the woman ( a noun) could be referred to as ‘she’ (a pronoun) • that man ( a noun) could be referred to as ‘him’ (pronoun)

3. Personal pronouns refer to people and things, for example • I • you • he • she • it • we • they

4. And a pronoun, like a noun, can be the subject of the sentence • She is going to Paris. • She has a mean and nasty nature. • I give you the instructions and you obey them. Right?

5. If you want to give more information about the subject - or object - of a sentence • You can use a relative pronoun to introduce the extra information • Like • who • which • where • what • that

6. For example: • She was the woman who had stolen my purse. • The cream, which was already six days old, had gone completely sour. • We searched even in places where we’d already looked.

7. The relative pronoun allows you neatly to insert information inside the same sentence. • So • you can use relative pronouns, in some cases, to join two sentence strings • Like this: • She was the woman. She had stolen my purse. • She was the woman who had stolen my purse.

8. Common errors 1 • Making the relative pronoun start a new sentence, instead of including its word group inside the first one • e.g. She was the woman. Who had attacked me. (wrong) • It should have been: She was the woman who had attacked me. (right)

9. Common errors 2 • Using the wrong relative pronoun • Who refers to a person • Which or that refers to a thing • So what’s wrong with the following sentences?

10. Correct the errors • She is the woman which served me yesterday. • James is the man that told me where to go.

11. Those sentences should have read • She is the woman who served me yesterday. • James is the man who me where to go.

12. Common errors 3 • Using a relative pronoun and then using a noun or pronoun AS WELL! • Like this • This is the bag which it is already full. • This is the bag which I have already filled it.

13. Those sentences should have read • This is the bag which is already full. • This is the bag which I have already filled.

14. Common errors 4 • Using ‘who’ instead of ‘whom’ • Using ‘whom’ instead of ‘who’. • How can you tell which is correct?

15. The who/whom confusion Remember the personal pronouns? • I, you, he, she, it, we, they

16. Some pronouns can change their form • It depends whether they are subject or object of the sentence • sounds complicated, but it isn’t really • look at some examples

17. Subject and object forms • I have killed him (I is the subject, him is the object). • He has killed me (He is the subject, me is the object)

18. Subject I You He She It We They Object Me You (no change) Him Her It (no change) Us Them How they change

19. So you can see that • Who is the subject form • and • Whom is the object form

20. Who/whom is the only relative pronoun that changes in this way • people often think ‘whom’ sounds posher and therefore use it in the wrong place • hardly anybody uses ‘whom’ in speech - but it is correct to use it in writing - provided you use it in the right place.

21. To check which you want, who or whom, test out the phrase by substituting he / him • If the substitute comes up ‘him’, what you need is ‘whom’ • If the substitute makes sense with ‘he’, then the relative pronoun will be ‘who’

22. Who? Whom? Try it. • He is the man who/whom tore my report to shreds. • Tom Cruise was the man who/whom Nicole Kidman married. • Catch the man who/whom ran over my dog. • She is a woman who/whom I would never trust in a million years.

23. Who? Whom? Answers • He is the man who tore my report to shreds. • Tom Cruise was the man whom Nicole Kidman married. • Catch the man who ran over my dog. • She is a woman whom I would never trust in a million years.

24. Common Errors 5 • I haven’t yet mentioned ‘whose’ • ‘Whose’ is a relative pronoun that shows possession • For example • This is the man whose wife I stole. • She had a mother, whose name was Sarah.

25. Using whose • You can only use ‘whose’ of a person. • If talking about a thing, it is more correct to say ‘of which’ • For example • She gave me an emerald, the colour of which was a perfect green.

26. Spelling problem? • Quite often people spell the possessive whose wrongly • They write who’s • Who’s always means who is

27. Common errors 6 • Using ‘what’ when you need ‘which’ • When choice is involved, you have to use ‘which’ and not ‘what’ • For example: She wasn’t sure which way to go (not what way to go) • Or: She couldn’t decide which chocolate to take (not what chocolate) • He wasn’t sure which woman to believe (not what woman)

28. To check your understanding of all these things • Look at Handout Three