The relative pronoun as object in relative clause.

A) Subject and Object.

A relative pronoun such as who or that can be the subject of a relative clause.

• A.U talked to a couple who were staying at the camp-site. (Not they were staying at the camp-site)
• The guest who came this morning was from Islamabad.
• The Fax that came this morning is from U.S Embassy. (That came…..it came)


A relative pronoun can also be an object of a relative clause.

A.F and A.U are visiting a building that they dreamt to purchase. (In this sentence of relative clause, we can’t write him, her, it, them, etc.)

Leaving out the relative pronoun

We can leave out the relative pronoun when it is the object of the relative clause.We do this especially in spoken English.Compare these example:

With object pronoun

• The man who Ahmed saw at the seminar is Rana Bhagwandas.
• That is an ancient graveyard that we visited.

Without object pronoun
• The man Ahmed saw at the seminar is Rana Bhagwandas.
• That is an ancient graveyard we visited.
• We don’t know the name of the person the police are questioning.
• The jacket you are wearing is falling to pieces.

Remember that we can not leave out a pronoun when it is the subject of a relative clause.

• The man who spoke to Ahmed is Sana’s husband.