Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so. Choose the correct option.
A cottager and his wife had a hen. The hen laid an egg every day.
Topic: Synthesis — relative clause
Try it
Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(d) A cottager and his wife had a hen which laid an egg every day..
The two sentences join with a RELATIVE PRONOUN, and the whole question turns on choosing the right one.
WHICH is used for animals and things; WHO is used for people. A hen is an animal, so "a hen WHICH laid an egg" is correct and option (b), which uses "who", is wrong.
(THAT would also be acceptable in ordinary English, but between the options given, "which" is the correct choice.)
Option (a) rearranges the sentence so that the cottager no longer OWNS the hen. Option (c) introduces a cause-and-effect relationship that the original does not state, and changes "laid an egg" into "had an egg".
THE RULE: who for people, which for animals and things, whose for possession, whom for the object of a verb or preposition.
A cottager and his wife had a hen which laid an egg every day..