關係代名詞: 7 Rules Taiwan Pros Master (2026) | who which that 完整指南

關係代名詞 (relative pronouns) are five small words — who, whom, whose, which, that — that connect a noun to extra information about it without forcing you to start a new sentence. In Taiwan classrooms they get drilled to death yet rarely click, because most lessons explain the categories before showing how relative pronouns earn their keep in real writing. This guide flips that. You will get the working rules, the omission shortcut every Taiwan student misses, the comma question that wrecks TOEIC scores, and a 30-sentence drill at the end so you can prove you have it. By the time you finish, picking the right 關代 in real sentences will feel automatic.

What Relative Pronouns Actually Do | 關係代名詞的真正用途

A relative pronoun does one job: it glues a second clause onto a noun in the first clause so you can describe that noun without repeating it. Take two short sentences — The teacher is from Taipei. The teacher speaks four languages. A relative pronoun lets you fuse them into one cleaner sentence: The teacher who speaks four languages is from Taipei. The 關係代名詞 replaces the second mention of “the teacher” and pulls the extra information into a single tidy clause.

That fused chunk has a name: a relative clause (also called a 形容詞子句 or adjective clause). It works like an adjective — it modifies a noun. The difference is that an adjective is one word and a relative clause is a small sentence. Once you see relative pronouns as a compression tool rather than a grammar puzzle, the rules below stop feeling arbitrary.

The 5 Core 關係代名詞 | who, whom, whose, which, that

Five is the real number you need to learn. Some grammar books add what, but what behaves differently — it does not have a noun in front of it, so it is technically a different category (a fused relative). Stick to the five below and 95% of your writing is covered.

• who — refers to people, working as the subject of the relative clause. The candidate who arrived early got the job.
• whom — refers to people, working as the object. Formal in writing, almost dead in speech. The candidate whom we hired starts Monday.
• whose — shows possession, used for people, animals, and (sometimes) things. The student whose essay won is in my class.
• which — refers to things and animals, never people. The phone which I bought last year still works.
• that — refers to people, things, or animals. Works in most restrictive clauses (more on commas below). The bus that goes to Songshan stops here.

The single most common mistake Taiwan students make is using which for a person — The teacher which I like is wrong, always. If the noun is human, you have two options: who または that. Never which.

Rule 1 — Use Who for People | 用 who 指人 (作主詞)

When the noun you are describing is a person and the relative pronoun is doing the work of the subject inside the clause, choose who. Test: if you can mentally replace the relative pronoun with he または she in the second clause, who is correct. Example — I have a friend who works at TSMC. Mental check: He works at TSMC. ✓ Subject position. Use who.

You will sometimes see that used for people too — I have a friend that works at TSMC. Both are grammatically acceptable, but who sounds more natural in writing and is the safer choice in any formal context, including TOEIC, IELTS, and business emails. Save that for things and casual speech.

Rule 2 — Use Which for Things and Animals | 用 which 指物與動物

If the noun is a thing, a place, an animal, or any non-human, use which. Test: if you can mentally replace the relative pronoun with it または they, which fits. Example — The novel which won the prize is sold out. Mental check: It won the prize. ✓

An important nuance: in restrictive clauses (no commas), that often replaces which and sounds more natural — The novel that won the prize is sold out. In non-restrictive clauses (with commas), you must use which — The novel, which won the prize, is sold out. The comma rule is its own beast, so we treat it in a dedicated section below.

Rule 3 — Whose for Possession | 用 whose 表所有格

The relative pronoun whose covers possession — the X’s idea. Despite looking like it should only refer to people, modern English allows whose for things too, even though grammar books from twenty years ago insisted otherwise. Examples:

• A student whose motivation is high will outwork a more talented peer. (person)
• A company whose values match yours is worth the lower salary. (thing — fully acceptable)
• A dog whose owner trained it well is a joy at parties. (animal)

The clunky alternative for things — of which — is technically correct but reads like a legal contract. Stick with whose.

Rule 4 — Whom for Objects (Formal Writing Only) | whom 作受詞

Use whom when the relative pronoun is the object of the verb in the relative clause. Test: if you would say him または her in the second clause, use whom. The author whom I met yesterday signed my book. Mental check: I met him yesterday. ✓ Object position.

The truth is, whom is fading. Most native speakers replace it with who in conversation, and TOEIC accepts both as correct in many contexts. The two situations where whom is still strongly preferred are (1) right after a preposition — the manager to whom I report — and (2) in formal writing where precision matters. In everyday speech, no one will think you sound smart for using whom; they will think you sound like a textbook. Use it when it fits the register.

Rule 5 — That Works for People and Things | that 兩者皆可用 (但有限制)

That is the multitasker. It refers to people, things, and animals, and it is allowed in restrictive clauses (the no-comma kind). For a quick decision tree: if there is no comma, that works for anything. If there is a comma, that is wrong — use who for people and which for things.

• The phone that I bought last year still works. ✓ (thing, no comma)
• The student that won the contest is in my class. ✓ (person, no comma — acceptable, though who is preferred in writing)
• The phone, that I bought last year, still works. ✗ Wrong — use which after a comma.

One under-taught point: when the noun being described is the only one of its kind (a superlative like the best, the first, the only) or contains all, every, any, nothing, or everything, that is almost always preferred over which. The best meal that I ever had was in Tainan. Sounds right. The best meal which I ever had… sounds bookish and wrong to a native ear.

When Can You Omit the Relative Pronoun? | 關係代名詞何時可以省略

This is the part Taiwan classrooms tend to skip, and it is the part native speakers use constantly. You can drop the 關係代名詞 entirely when two conditions are both met: the clause is restrictive (no commas), and the relative pronoun is the object of the verb in the clause. The book (that) I borrowed is overdue. その that can vanish and the sentence still works — actually, it sounds more natural without it.

Three quick rules for omission:

• You can drop it if the relative pronoun is the object: The candidate (whom) we interviewed got the job.
• You cannot drop it if the relative pronoun is the subject: The candidate who arrived early got the job. Dropping who here would break the sentence.
• You cannot drop it in non-restrictive clauses (the comma kind): My boss, who lives in Hsinchu, commutes every day. The comma keeps who locked in.

This omission shortcut is why so much spoken English sounds different from the textbook version. Once you start dropping object-position relative pronouns, your spoken English gets noticeably more fluent within a week.

Restrictive vs Non-Restrictive Clauses | 限定與非限定子句 (逗號規則)

The comma is not decoration. It changes the meaning of the sentence. A restrictive clause (no commas) tells you which one — the information is essential. A non-restrictive clause (commas on both sides) adds extra information that you could remove without breaking the sentence.

• My brother who lives in Kaohsiung is a chef. — Restrictive. I have multiple brothers and I am specifying the Kaohsiung one.
• My brother, who lives in Kaohsiung, is a chef. — Non-restrictive. I only have one brother and I am adding the Kaohsiung detail as a side note.

That single comma changes the implication entirely. TOEIC reading sections love this trick. The fast rule: if removing the relative clause leaves the main idea intact, use commas. If the relative clause is the part that identifies which noun you are talking about, no commas.

Common Mistakes Taiwan Students Make | 台灣學生常犯錯誤

The errors below come up again and again in Taiwan ESL classrooms. Drill them once and you will catch them automatically on any test.

• 使用 which for people. 間違っている： The man which called me. 右： The man who called me.
• Doubling up the subject. 間違っている： The boy who he won. 右： The boy who won. The relative pronoun already does the subject’s job — don’t add he.
• Forgetting the comma in non-restrictive clauses. 間違っている： Mr. Chen who teaches us math is from Taichung. If you only have one Mr. Chen, you need commas around who teaches us math.
• 使用 that after a comma. 間違っている： The book, that I bought yesterday, is great. 右： The book, which I bought yesterday, is great.
• Treating where そして when as relative pronouns. They are relative adverbs, a related but separate category. Save them for a different lesson.

If you want a wider audit of grammar errors Taiwan learners repeat, read our 10 most common English grammar mistakes made by Taiwanese students.

30-Sentence Practice Set | 關係代名詞例句 30 題

Fill in the correct 關係代名詞 (who, whom, whose, which, that — or ∅ if omission works). Cover the answers on a piece of paper, work through them, then check.

1. The engineer ___ designed the bridge won an award. → who / that
2. The dog ___ tail keeps wagging is mine. → whose
3. The novel ___ I read last night was brilliant. → which / that / ∅
4. The candidate ___ we interviewed yesterday accepted the offer. → whom / who / that / ∅
5. The bus ___ goes to Taipei 101 leaves every ten minutes. → which / that
6. My cousin, ___ studied in Canada, speaks fluent French. → who
7. The restaurant ___ we ate at last week is closing. → which / that / ∅
8. The student ___ essay won first prize is only fifteen. → whose
9. The company ___ headquarters are in Hsinchu builds semiconductors. → whose
10. The teacher ___ I respect the most is Mr. Lin. → whom / who / that / ∅
11. The phone ___ I bought last year is already outdated. → which / that / ∅
12. The athlete ___ broke the record is only nineteen years old. → who / that
13. The proposal, ___ took six months to write, was rejected. → which
14. The cafe ___ opened on Tianmu Road serves Ethiopian coffee. → which / that
15. The friends ___ I trust most live abroad. → whom / who / that / ∅
16. This is the only restaurant ___ serves authentic Sichuan food in this district. → that
17. The neighbor ___ daughter goes to my school is a doctor. → whose
18. The book ___ I borrowed from the library is overdue. → which / that / ∅
19. The MRT line ___ runs through Banqiao opens at 6 a.m. → which / that
20. The musician, ___ first album sold a million copies, is back on tour. → whose
21. The exam ___ I failed last semester was algebra. → which / that / ∅
22. The coach, ___ players adore him, retired last week. → whom (formal: “to whom the players are devoted”)
23. Everything ___ I learned about life I learned from my grandmother. → that
24. The first person ___ arrived gets a free coffee. → who / that
25. The cat ___ keeps stealing my socks belongs to my neighbor. → which / that
26. The colleague ___ desk is next to mine just got promoted. → whose
27. The video ___ I watched yesterday explained relative pronouns in five minutes. → which / that / ∅
28. Anyone ___ wants to join the trip should email me by Friday. → who / that
29. The man ___ I met at the conference works at Google Taiwan. → whom / who / that / ∅
30. This is the best dumpling shop ___ has ever existed in Taipei. → that (superlative — prefer that over which)

Score yourself: 25+ correct, your 關係代名詞 is solid. 18–24, review the omission and comma rules. Below 18, walk back through Rule 1 and Rule 2 before moving on.

Watch a Quick 5-Minute Visual Lesson

Ricky’s explainer above pairs nicely with this guide because it walks through the 關代 omission rule visually — useful if you learn faster from diagrams than from text. Watch it after the practice set, not before, so the rules are in your head first.

Where to Take Your Grammar Next

Relative pronouns are the bridge between basic grammar (subject-verb agreement, tenses) and more advanced moves (reduced clauses, participles, embedded questions). Once 關係代名詞 feel automatic, the next two grammar topics worth the same focused practice are the present perfect tense — because most Taiwan learners mix it up with the simple past — and modal verbs, which carry most of the politeness and probability work in spoken English. Tackle one a week, drill the sentences, and you will feel the difference in your TOEIC reading score within a month.

情報源

1. Cambridge Dictionary — Relative pronouns — Authoritative reference for relative pronoun rules and examples.
2. British Council LearnEnglish — Relative clauses — Free grammar reference with audio examples.
3. Grammarly — Relative Pronouns: Definition, Examples & Usage — Plain-English explainer with common-mistake breakdowns.
4. 104 職場力 — 英文面試與職場英文文法 — Taiwan workplace English grammar context.