Hi students! In this video, we're going to
work on subject and object relative pronouns in adjective clauses, and how to tell the
difference. If you want to review the basic form and meaning of adjective clauses, check
out my video on that topic. Now let's look at our examples of subject and object relative
pronouns. Our first example sentence is, "He printed the email that I sent him." Now
the adjective clause in this sentence is "that I sent him." This is an adjective
clause that describes the noun "email." Now what's our relative pronoun? In the
sentence, the relative pronoun is "that." "Relative pronouns for adjective clauses can be
the word "that," "which," "who," or a variety of other wh- words. In this case, we're using
the relative pronoun "that." "He printed the email that I sent him." Now the relative
pronoun in the adjective clause can act like the subject of the clause, or like the object
of the clause, and telling the difference is going to become important later on. So how do
we figure out if it's the subject or the object of the clause? Well the first thing I like
to do is find my verb in the clause. "Sent." That's our verb. "I sent him," and
then now that we have our verb, what is the subject for that verb? "I sent him." And what does "that" mean in this sentence?
The meaning of "that" in this example is "the email," right? "I sent him the email." So this
is actually the object of the sentence. You can imagine that what that word "that" is
replacing, what it's taking the place of, and it's taking the place of the word "email"
in this sentence. "I sent him the email." So we know that it is the object relative pronoun
because it's taking the place of the object of the sentence. Let's try another example. "He
needs a computer that works well." Our adjective clause here is, "that works well." The noun
that it's describing is "computer," and our relative pronoun again is "that," so we'll do the
same thing we did before. We're going to look at our adjective clause and try to find the verb.
"That works well." The verb here is "works," and what works well? The computer works well. The
computer that he wants, or that he needs. But we don't see "computer" in this clause, right? That's
because the relative pronoun here is taking the place of "the computer." So it's replacing "the
computer." "The computer works well." So we can see that this relative pronoun is in the subject
position of this sentence because it's replacing the word "computer." You can imagine this like two
sentences. "He needs a computer." "The computer works well." We're combining the sentences with an
adjective clause, and the relative pronoun "that" is replacing "the computer." Let's look at example
number three. "They have a son who loves cheese." So our adjective clause in this sentence is, "who
loves cheese." The noun that it's describing is "son," and the relative pronoun is "who" in
this case. Now, to find out if the relative pronoun is subject or object, let's find the verb
first. The verb for our adjective clause is "love" and who loves? What's the subject for that verb?
They have a son. The son loves cheese. So here's our subject. Because "who" here is taking the
place of "the son." They have a son. The son loves cheese. We combine them using an adjective
clause, and this relative pronoun takes the place of "the son." Of the subject of the sentence.
One more example here. "My brother, who I love, lives in Wyoming." Our adjective clause here is
not at the end sentence but in the middle. We have our adjective clause, "who I love," and it's
describing my brother. And the relative pronoun is "who," and we have to figure out if it's a subject
or object relative pronoun. So first let's look at our adjective clause and find the verb. "Love."
And who loves? What's the subject for that verb? The subject is right here: "I." So what is "who?"
What is the meaning of "who" in the sentence? It's talking about "my brother." "My brother, who I
love, lives in Wyoming." So this is going to be the object, and let's think about if we divide
this into two sentences. The two sentences would be "My brother lives in Wyoming." "I love him."
"Him." "My brother." That's the object of the sentence, and our pronoun here is taking the
place of that object. So when you're trying to decide if the relative pronoun is the subject
or the object of the adjective clause, there are a couple of things you can do. You can first
look for the verb, and try to figure out what the subject of that verb is. If you can't find
one, probably the relative pronoun is subject, but maybe a more reliable way to find out is
to think about the sentence as two separate sentences. The main clause as one sentence, and
the adjective clause as a separate sentence, and try to figure out what word that relative
pronoun is replacing because a pronoun always replaces a noun, and what role that noun has in
the sentence. Is it the subject of the sentence or the object of the sentence? I hope this helped
you to understand subject and object pronouns in adjective clauses a little bit better. Leave me
a comment below if you have any other questions.
