They told us about the woman ______
- (a)whom lived next door.
- (b)which lived next door.
- (c)who lived next door.
- (d)whose lived next door.
Answer
C
Why
Correct — C, who lived next door. The relative pronoun is the subject of 'lived', and for a person acting as the subject of the clause English uses 'who'. 'Whom' is the object form, 'which' refers to things rather than people, and 'whose' is possessive and must be followed by a noun.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)whom lived next door. — 'Whom' is the object form, but here the pronoun is the subject of 'lived', which requires the subject form 'who'.
- (b)which lived next door. — 'Which' refers to things or animals, so it cannot refer to a person ('the woman').
- (d)whose lived next door. — 'Whose' is possessive and must be followed by a noun, so it cannot stand as the subject of 'lived'.
Concept
A relative-pronoun item on 'who' as the subject of a clause referring to a person.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
The man ______ helped us has left.
- (a)which
- (b)whom
- (c)who
- (d)whose
Answer(c) who — subject of the clause and a person.
- practice — not a real PYQ
I met the girl ______ won the prize.
- (a)who
- (b)which
- (c)whom
- (d)whose
Answer(a) who — she is the subject of 'won'.