» » Relative clauses (3) –clauses with whose, whom and where

Relative clauses (3) –clauses with whose, whom and where

Relative clauses –whose, whom and where

►The basic uses of whose in relative clauses:

We use whose in relative clauses instead of his/her/their, for example: 
- We saw some people –their Limozin had broken down.
=> We saw some people whose Limozin had broken down.
We use whose mostly for people. Look at these examples:
- A widow is a woman whose husband is dead. (Her husband is dead).
- What’s the name of the boy whose bike you borrowed? (You borrow his car).
- The other day I met someone whose sister I went to college with. (I went to college with his sister)
►The basic uses of whom in relative clauses:
We can use whom instead of who (for people) when it is the object of the verb in the relative clause (look at the first example below). We can also use whom with a preposition (to/from/with whom ...etc) (look at the second example):
- The woman whom he wanted to see was away on holiday.
- The girl with whom he fell in love left him after a few days.
Pay attention! We don’t often use whom in spoken. We normally prefer who or that or you can leave them out for example:
- The woman (who/that) I wanted to meet …
- The girl (who/that) he fell in love with …
 
►The basic uses of where in relative clauses:
We can use where in a relative clause to talk about places:
- The hotel –they stayed there –was not very clean.
=> The hotel where they stayed was not very clean.
More examples: 
- I recently went back to the town where I spent my childhood. (Or “the town (that) I spent my childhood).
- I would like to live in a country where there is plenty of sunshine.
Note: we use that or we leave it out when we say the day/the time/the year …etc. that something happened.
Examples:
- Do you still remember the day (that) we first met?
- The last time (that) I saw her, she looked very well.
- I have not seen him since the year (that) he got married.
We can also say the reason why something happens or the reason that something happens. You can also leave out why and that.
-The reason (why/that) I’m phoning you is to invite you to a party.