Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence.

The man which was present at the meeting spoke against the chairperson.

The correct answer is 'The man who was present'.

Key Points

• The underlined part in the given sentence is grammatically incorrect.
• Here, 'The man who was present' should be used instead of 'The man which was present'.
• In the given sentence, "which" is incorrect because "which" is used to refer to things or animals, not people.
• Also, "men" is incorrect because the sentence refers to one man, not multiple men. The correct relative pronoun for a singular subject is "who," not "whom."
• Thus, as per the above explanation, we can conclude that the correct answer is Option 4.
   

Correct Sentence: The man who was present at the meeting spoke against the chairperson.

Important Points

• "Who" and "whom" are relative pronouns that are often confused, but they have distinct uses based on the grammatical context.
• "Who" is used in the subjective case. This means it's used when the pronoun acts as the subject of a particular clause. In other words, "who" is used when the pronoun is doing the action.
  • Example: "Jane is the woman who baked the cookies." In this sentence, "who" is linked to the action of baking the cookies.
• "Whom" is used in the objective case. This means it's used when the pronoun acts as the object of a particular clause. "Whom" is used when some action is being done to the pronoun.
  • Example: "Tom is the man whom Jane visited." In this sentence, "whom" is the object of the action "Jane visited."