Question

Fill in the blank with the appropriate option:
I, __________ the oldest, must lead the way.

• A. which am
• B. who were
• C. who am
• D. that is

Answer 1

The correct option is C who am

A relative pronoun performs the function of a pronoun as well as a conjunction. As a pronoun it refers or relates to a noun that's common between two sentences and as a conjunction it joins those sentences. In the given statement, "I" is the antecedent, the noun which the relative pronoun relates to the rest of the sentence. The subject is "I", as it performs the action "must lead" against the object "the way". When the subject is the antecedent, 'who' is the appropriate relative pronoun, and the number and person (here, first person singular) of the antecedent decides the relative pronoun. Hence, 'am' is the correct form of 'to be', and option C is correct. 'Which am' is an incorrect phrase on its own, because 'which' is generally used for things, whereas the sentence focuses on a person, and 'am' does not go with 'which', because 'am' is used to refer to oneself, and that cannot be done by a thing. Hence option A is incorrect. 'Who were' is incorrect here because 'were' is used for a plural noun, whereas 'I' is a singular noun, and that makes option B wrong. In 'that is', 'that' is usually used for things, and 'is' is a verb form of 'to be' for the second person singular, whereas 'I' is in the first person singular, hence option D is incorrect.