“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hoffman

Relative Pronoun - A pronoun that introduces a relative clause and has reference to an antecedent.

Relative Clause - a clause introduced by a relative pronoun; “‘who visits frequently’ is a relative clause in the sentence ‘John, who visits frequently, is ill’”

Ok, so I have a definition to define my definition that uses the term I’m attempting to define within it - Aaaaaargh! This is why English sucks.

Let’s break this down a bit more…

Sometimes a sentence is embedded within another sentence. This creates a relative clause where the antecedent is repeated by the relative pronoun.

Bob Jones, who is a fictional character, can jump twenty feet high.

This combines two sentences: Bob Jones is a fictional character. and Bob Jones can jump twenty feet high.

“Who” is the relative pronoun replacing “Bob Jones”.

This is a bit interesting - you see and hear relative pronouns all the time but all the explanaions I found rely completely on the examples. The actual descriptions suck.

Of course, my description isn’t much better…

Tip: Trim personal pronouns where it makes sense to do so. One way to improve writing is to get rid of the extra words. The above example can also be written as: Bob Jones, a fictional character, can jump twenty feet high.

None of the meaning is lost so this is an improvent.