Interrogative and Relative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that we often use to ask a question. The five interrogative pronouns are:

• What
• Which
• Who
• Whom
• Whose

Who, whom, and whose refer to people. Which and what are used for everything else!

We primarily use interrogative pronouns to form questions.

Example:

What are you doing today?

Who is going with Samantha?

Whose pumpkins are these?

In a question, we often flip the order of the verb and the pronoun. Rephrasing the question as a statement may help you see more clearly how the pronoun is being used: you are doing what today; Samantha is going with who; these pumpkins are whose.

Relative pronouns are used to form relative clauses. Many of these pronouns can also be interrogative pronouns!

• Which
• That
• Whose
• Whoever
• Whomever
• Who
• Whom

The main way we use relative pronouns is to form relative clauses. A relative clause is a clause that are used to add more details about a noun.

Example:

The day, which was already terrible, only got worse.

Her aunt, who lives in Europe, came to visit for Thanksgiving.

The cake that I bought for my friend's birthday is missing from the fridge.