Could you tell me about the relative pronoun, please? When can I skip it? Can I say "I know him plays tennis there" instead of "I know him who plays tennis there"?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
Certainly! A relative pronoun is a word that connects a dependent clause to the independent clause. Dependent clauses cannot stand on their own as a sentence; this is where a relative pronoun comes in. The relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, that, which. For example, the man who is sitting down is my dad. The independent clause is "the man is my dad," the dependent clause is"is sitting down." "Who" is the relative pronoun that connects these clauses together. You can skip a relative pronoun when you only have an independent clause. Here are examples of relative pronouns being used: Ex: The cat [which I adore] is named Fluffy. Ex: The cake [that my brother made] is for my birthday. As for "I know him plays tennis there" and "I know him who plays tennis there" you would not be able to use either one of these sentences because they are both grammatically incorrect. It seems as though you are using the incorrect pronoun. You would say "I know that he plays tennis there" or "I know he plays tennis there."
