Complete the stressed college student's complaint about their thesis by dragging the correct formal relative clauses into the blanks.
The esteemed professor on whose approval my entire academic future depends just sighed heavily at my first draft. Worse still, the obscure historical texts to which I am referring throughout the essay were mostly found on a dubious fan forum. To top it all off, the study group members with whom I collaborated spent the whole time watching cat videos!
The esteemed professor on whose approval my entire academic future depends just sighed heavily at my first draft.
We say "depend on someone's approval." Because the approval belongs to the professor, we use the possessive relative pronoun "whose" combined with the preposition "on."
Worse still, the obscure historical texts to which I am referring throughout the essay were mostly found on a dubious fan forum.
The verb "refer" takes the preposition "to" (refer to texts). In formal English, the preposition moves before the relative pronoun "which."
To top it all off, the study group members with whom I collaborated spent the whole time watching cat videos!
You "collaborate with someone." Since the members are people, we use the object pronoun "whom" after the preposition "with."
Relative clause
- ✅ The man who called is my uncle. — restrictive (essential: which man?)
- ✅ My uncle, who lives in Paris, called. — non-restrictive (extra info, commas)
- ❌ My uncle that lives in Paris — wrong (that can't introduce non-restrictive)
- ✅ The book that I read = The book I read — restrictive (pronoun optional)
Relative clauses modify nouns using who/whom/whose/which/that or where/when/why. Restrictive = essential, no commas, that OK. Non-restrictive = extra, needs commas, uses which/who (never that).
Rule: if you can remove the clause and still know which noun is meant → non-restrictive (commas). If removing it makes the noun ambiguous → restrictive (no commas).
Preposition
- ✅ interested in — ❌ interested on
- ✅ good at football — ❌ good in football
- ✅ depend on — ❌ depend of
- ✅ arrive at the station — ❌ arrive to the station
Prepositions link nouns to the rest of the sentence: time (at 5pm), place (in London), manner (with care), abstract (afraid of). Most are idiomatic — the "correct" preposition must be memorised with each verb/adjective combination.
Rule: there is no universal rule. English prepositions are learned by combination: interested IN, good AT, depend ON, afraid OF. Your native language's equivalent will often mislead.
Pronoun
- ✅ between you and me — ❌ between you and I (objective case after preposition)
- ✅ its colour — ❌ it's colour (it's = it is)
- ✅ She did it herself. — reflexive pronoun
- ✅ The person who called… — relative pronoun
Pronouns replace nouns: personal (I/me/my), demonstrative (this/that), relative (who/which/that), interrogative (who?/what?), reflexive (myself), indefinite (everyone/nobody). They carry case that nouns have lost.
Trap: pronouns are where English case still matters: I vs me, who vs whom, its vs it's. Get these wrong and it's instantly noticeable.
Possessive
- ✅ its tail — ❌ it's tail (it's = it is, not possessive)
- ✅ the students' essays — plural possessive (apostrophe after the s)
- ✅ Sarah's book — singular possessive ('s)
- ✅ a friend of mine — possessive pronoun (not my)
Possessives show ownership: nouns use 's (singular) or s' (plural ending in s). Pronouns have special forms: my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, its, our/ours, their/theirs.
Trap: its (possessive) vs it's (= it is). Possessive pronouns NEVER use apostrophes — that's the opposite of nouns.
B2 | Upper Intermediate
- ✅ If I had studied harder, I would have passed. — third conditional
- ✅ The report is being reviewed by the committee. — passive progressive
- ✅ Having finished the exam, she left. — participle clause
- ✅ He denied having taken the money. — complex verb pattern
These are B2 patterns — the CEFR upper-intermediate level. At B2 you handle mixed conditionals, all passive forms, participle clauses, and can argue a point clearly. This is the level most universities and employers require.
Marker: if you can write a structured essay and debate an abstract topic, you're B2.
Hard
- Had she not intervened, the situation would have escalated. — inverted conditional
- All distractors are grammatically plausible in other contexts
- Multiple rules interact (e.g., tense + aspect + modality)
- Context determines the answer — no single "rule" is enough
Hard marks upper-intermediate to advanced challenges: B2+, interacting rules, edge cases, plausible distractors, and contexts where pattern-matching fails.
Use "Hard" when Easy/Medium feel trivial and you want to test whether you actually understand a rule versus just recognising surface patterns.