‘Who’ – ‘whose’ – ‘whom’ – ‘that’ and ‘which’ – are relative pronouns.
There is often confusion about the use of who, whose, whom, that and which.
- We use who when referring to people or when we want to know the person.
- The person who answered the phone was very rude.
- Who ate all the biscuits?
- We use which to refer to a thing or an idea, and to ask about choices.
- My ring, which is 20 years old, isn’t worth much.
- Which size do you wear, small, medium or large?
- We use that for both a person and a thing/idea.
When that is used it usually refers to classes or types of people.
- This is the style that I want to use.
- The car that belongs to me is the blue one over there.
- He is the kind of person that/who can be trusted.
- I want to speak to the person who (not that) called me yesterday.
- The person who (not that) borrowed the book from the library, should return it as soon as possible.
- Whose refers to ownership.
- Whose book is this?
- There’s the girl whose dog is lost.
- Whom:
When who is the object of a verb, whom can be used instead, but it is formal and rather old-fashioned.
In modern speech, we use who, or we leave out the pronoun.
- To whom did you wish to speak? (formal)
- Who would you like to speak to? (modern speech)
- You are referring to a person who no longer works here.
- The person to whom you are referring no longer works here.