RELATIVE PRONOUNS
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES – they include essential information, necessary to understand the sentence.
The sentence without the relative clause would be incomplete. We do not use commas in defining relative
clauses.
WHO (WHOM) / THAT
– people
He is the man that/who we talked about.
(we use whom after prepositions: by whom, about whom, to whom ) It’s the man about whom we talked.
THAT / WHICH
– things That’s the dog that/which bit me.
WHERE
- places We visited the house where he was born.
(preposition + which)
- places We visited the house in which he was born,
WHOSE
- possession He is the man whose son won the prize.
WHEN
- time
It was on Monday when I heard the news.
We use THAT after superlatives and expressions like something, someone, anyone, everything:
She invited everyone that she knew.
A RELATIVE PRONOUN CAN BE THE SUBJECT OF THE OBJECT OF THE RELATIVE CLAUSE.
The book that I am reading is very interesting.
I am reading the book.
(object)
They are visiting a woman who they met on holiday.
They met her on holiday.
(object)
She talked to the people who were travelling with us.
They were travelling with us.
(subject)
They met a man who bought a flat next door.
He bought a flat next door.
(subject)
A relative pronoun can be left out if it is the object of the relative clause. A relative pronoun can’t be
left out if it is the subject of the relative clause.
The book (which/that) I read was very interesting.
The boy (that/who) I met outside is my new neighbour.
The student who/that had borrowed my book never gave it back.
PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES:
- we tend to place a preposition at the end of the relative clause:
- that cannot be used after a preposition
- we use whom after a preposition (to whom, about whom, by whom, of whom )
This is the house in which I live  This is the house which I live in
Give me the chair on which you are sitting  Give me the chair which you are sitting on
This is the car for which I paid ₤2000  This is the car which I paid ₤2000 for
This is the pub to which we usually go  This is the pub which we usually go to
The man about whom we were talking is here  The man who we were talking about is here
(However, if the relative clause is very long, the preposition should go before the relative pronoun: This is the
letter in which he said how much he was missing everybody home)
We visited the place where Shakespeare was born.
We visited the place in which Shakespeare was born.
We visited the place which Shakespeare was born in.
We visited the place that Shakespeare was born in
We visited the place Ø Shakespeare was born in.
REDUCED RELATIVE CLAUSES
-
a present participle clause ( -ing ) can be used to replace a relative clause:
People who buy this product will be disappointed  People buying this product will be disappointed.
The man that was waiting for a bus lit a cigarette  The man waiting for a bus lit a cigarette.
The woman who is waving to us is my sister  The woman waving to us is my sister.
The man that wrote to me expected a reply  The man writing to me expected a reply.
-
a past participle clause can replace a passive relative clause:
The car which was parked outside was broken  The car parked outside was broken
All songs which are recorded by this singer are very good  All songs recorded by this singer are very good.
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES – they provide extra information( between commas), not essential
to the sentence. We use commas in non-defining relative clauses. The sentence would make the sentence on
its own, without the relative clause.
WHO (WHOM)
WHICH
WHERE
WHOSE
– people (we use whom with prepositions: by whom, about whom, to whom,
of whom )
-things
- place
- possession
My brother, who lives in Paris, often comes to visit us.
The bicycle, which I bought last month, broke down yesterday.
My neighbour, whose son goes to school with our daughter, often invites us for a drink.
-
THAT is not used in non-defining relative clauses
relative pronouns can’t be left out in relative clauses
Non-defining relative clauses after: some, many, most, both, neither:
I ate an apple and a pear, both of which were very tasty.
I started learning German and Latin, neither of which I had studied before.
She has a lot of CDs, many of which belong to her brother.
I met a lot of people, most of whom study at the same university.
There were a lot of people at the party, some of whom stayed there all night.
In non-defining relative clauses we can use which relating to a whole sentence, not just to a noun.
David helped me clear up, which was very kind of him.
She had to work late again, which annoyed her husband.
Tim pushed Kate into the swimming pool, which seemed to amuse everyone.