Relative Clauses: whose, where, when, quantifier + whom

Level: B2. Once you can build basic relative clauses with who, which and that, these are the pieces that make your sentences precise: whose for possession, where and when for place and time, and the formal quantifier + of + whom / which pattern.

The rule

A relative clause gives more information about a noun. It begins with a relative word (who, which, that, whose, where, when) that points back to that noun. This lesson covers the words beyond the basic three.

Whose shows possession — it replaces his, her, its or their. It works for people and things: the writer whose book won (= her book), a house whose roof leaks (= its roof). Where means in / at / to which and follows a place: the city where we met = the city in which we met. When means on / in / at which and follows a time: the year when we married = the year in which we married.

The formal pattern quantifier + of + whom / which adds a quantity. You take a word like all, both, most, many, several, none, one, half and join it with of whom (people) or of which (things): I have three cousins, all of whom live abroad; He wrote ten books, none of which sold well. This is almost always a non-defining clause — extra information set off by commas — because it comments on the whole noun rather than identifying it.

Forms

Example sentences

Common mistakes

• ❌ The man who’s car was stolen called. → ✅ The man whose car was stolen called. Whose shows possession; who’s = who is / who has.
• ❌ This is the shop where I bought it there. → ✅ This is the shop where I bought it. Where already means in which; do not add there.
• ❌ The house where I like has a garden. → ✅ The house that I like has a garden. Use where only for a location inside the clause; here like needs an object, so use that/which.
• ❌ To who did you give it? → ✅ To whom did you give it? After a preposition, use whom, not who.
• ❌ I have two sisters, both of them are nurses. → ✅ I have two sisters, both of whom are nurses. To join the clauses, use of whom, not of them.
• ❌ The year where we met was 2010. → ✅ The year when we met was 2010. Use when for time, where for place.

A short conversation

A: Is that the neighbour whose dog barks all night? B: Yes. And that’s the flat where the students used to live. A: The ones most of whom moved out in June? B: Exactly. I don’t miss the summer when the parties started at midnight.

Usage notes

• Preposition stranding vs fronting. The person I wrote to (everyday) and the person to whom I wrote (formal) mean the same. Spoken English usually leaves the preposition at the end; formal writing may move it to the front, and then who must become whom.
• That cannot follow a preposition or a comma. You can say the fund that we used but not the fund from that we paid (use which), and never …, that… in a non-defining clause.
• Where only for real places. After nouns like situation, case, point careful writers prefer in which: a situation in which… rather than a situation where…, though where is common in speech.
• Of which for things, of whom for people. The quantifier pattern splits by person: the books, half of which… but the readers, half of whom….

Compared with…

• Defining vs non-defining. A defining clause identifies the noun and takes no commas: The students who passed celebrated (only those students). A non-defining clause adds extra detail between commas: The students, who all passed, celebrated (all of them). The quantifier pattern (most of whom) is non-defining. See Relative Clauses: Non-defining.
• Reduced relative clauses. When the relative word is the subject + be, you can drop both: the man who is standing there → the man standing there; the book which was written in 1920 → the book written in 1920. You cannot reduce a whose, where or when clause this way. See Reduced Relative Clauses.

How to say it

• whose is said /huːz/ — exactly like who’s and like hues. The spelling differs, but the sound is identical, which is why learners mix them up in writing.
• whom is /huːm/, a clear final m. In speech it is formal; many speakers simply say who.
• where /weə(r)/ and were /wɜː(r)/ are different: where rhymes with hair, were rhymes with fur.
• In a non-defining clause, drop your voice slightly and pause at each comma — the commas are real breaks you can hear.

Quick recap before you practise.

Practice

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

Next

• Next grammar topic: Subject-Verb Agreement: Tricky Cases
• Prerequisites: Relative Clauses: Defining · Relative Clauses: Non-defining
• Back to the English grammar section