Who or Which — People and Things
Practice choosing who for people and which for things and animals in relative clauses, including when the nearest noun is not the one described.
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The woman ___ lives next door is a nurse.
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who
'The woman' is a person → 'who'. 'Which' is for things and animals.
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Where's the book ___ was on the table?
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which
A book is a thing → 'which'. 'Where' doesn't work: the book itself was on the table, so it's the subject of 'was'.
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Do you know the man in the blue jacket ___ is talking to Tom?
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who
The man is talking, not the jacket — so the pronoun describes a person → 'who', even though 'jacket' is the nearest noun.
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I've lost the keys ___ you gave me.
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which
Keys are things → 'which'. 'Who' is only for people.
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Is she the doctor ___ helped you when you broke your arm?
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who
A doctor is a person, and the pronoun is the subject of 'helped' → 'who'. 'Whose' needs a noun after it.
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The people ___ I work with are really friendly.
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who
People → 'who'. 'Where' doesn't work: you work with people, not 'work there with'. The preposition 'with' stays at the end.
Who or Which?
In a relative clause, who refers to people and which to things and animals: The woman who lives next door is a nurse, I've lost the keys which you gave me. The choice depends on the noun the clause describes, and that is not always the nearest noun. In Do you know the man in the blue jacket who is talking to Tom? the clause describes the man — jackets don't talk — so the word is who. When a preposition belongs to the clause, it usually goes to the end in everyday English: the people who I work with. Learners whose first language uses one relative word for both people and things tend to overuse whichever English word they learned first; the fastest correction is to ask a single question every time: is it a person?