Exercise 24: The Relative pronoun
1) The relative pronoun relates or refers to a word in the very recent context (sometimes it refers forwards to a word yet to come), the word to which it refers is called the ‘antecedent’.
2) The relative pronoun introduces a clause (called a relative clause).
EXAMPLES
The boy (=antecedent) who (relative pronoun) went home was called Eric.
(‘who went home’ is the relative clause)
The man (=antecedent) whom (relative pronoun) I killed was a noble.
(‘whom I killed’ is the relative clause)
The woman about whose beauty I had heard had already gone home.
(‘about whose beauty I had heard’ is the relative clause)
3) The English forms of the relative pronoun are: who, whom, whose, which, that.
It is often omitted in English (‘The book [which] I read was excellent”), but it is NEVER omitted in Latin.
4) The Latin relative pronoun must agree with its antecedent (the word it refers to) in NUMBER and GENDER, e.g.
servus (masc. sing.) qui
regina (fem. sing.) quae
proelium (neut. sing.) quod
5) The relative pronoun takes its CASE from its role in the relative clause:
pueri (antecedent; masc. plu.) quibus (relative pronoun; masc. plu.; dative case) pecuniam dedi . . .
‘The boys to whom I gave money . . . ’
puellae quarum (gen.) libros habeo . . . ’
‘The girls whose books I have . . . ’
laudabam servum qui (nom.) reginam terrebat (qui is subject of terrebat)
‘I praised the slave who scared the queen.’
pecuniam dedi servo de cuius (gen.) fortitudine audieram.
‘I gave money to the slave about whose bravery I had heard.’
pecuniam dedi servo quem amabat regina (quem is object of amabat).
‘I gave money to the slave whom the queen used to love.’
6) After a full stop, colon or semi-colon the relative pronoun should be translated by a demonstrative pronoun (this/that) or personal pronoun (he/she/they/him them etc):
quod ubi vidit servus = When the slave saw this.
quem ubi servus vidit = When the slave saw him (quem is masculine).
