Word agreement

She has  found relatives whom she never knew [have] existed. The present perfect implies the relatives are still alive. Without [have] it implies that they passed away. How could she find the dead relatives?

Existed in the context you presented is a past participle used as adjective IMO. I think [have] is needed in this context to make better sense.

Whom -is the relative pronoun in this clause for the existed relatives.

 

Anonymous wrote:

Please divide the following sentence into members: She has  found relatives whom she never knew existed. I do not understand where exhisted belongs and how it agrees with whom. Thank you. Irene

Hi Irene
The sentence should be: She has found relatives who she never knew existed.
She has found relatives is the main clause.
... who existed is a relative clause, who being the subject and existed the main verb of the relative clause. Existed is in the past tense. ... she never knew is an embedded phrase/clause with its own subject (she) and main verb (knew) in the relative clause.

Cheers
CB