RELATIVE
CLAUSES
RELATIVE CLAUSES
• Relative clauses describe and provide
information about something or someone that
we have usually already specified.
– I like working with students who appreciate
what I do.
• We use relative clauses in order to identify
things or people and to distinguish them from
other similar things.
– Mancunians aren’t people who live in Manchester,
they’re people who were born there
USE
• We use relative clauses to give
additional information about something
without starting another sentence.
• By combining sentences with a
relative clause, your text becomes
more fluent and you can avoid
repeating certain words.
RELATIVE CLAUSES
1. Subject and Object
Relative clauses give extra information about a noun
in the main clause. They can refer to this as subject or
object.
“That’s the woman who bought my car”
Subject
“That’s the flat that I was looking for”
Object
2. Combining sentences
Note how sentences are combined.
Subject :
“This is Sofia. She bought my car”
“Sofia is the person who bought my car”
Object :
“That is the flat. I was looking for it”
“That is the flat that I was looking for”
How to Form Relative Clauses
Imagine, a girl is talking to Tom.
You want to know who she is and
ask a friend whether he knows her.
>>You could say:
A girl is talking to Tom.
Do you know the girl?
A girl is talking to
Tom. Do you know
the girl?
That sounds rather complicated,
doesn't it?
>> It would be easier with a relative
clause: you put both pieces of
information into one sentence.
Start with the most important
thing – you want to know who the
girl is.
Do you know the girl …
Do you know the
girl….?
As your friend cannot know which
girl you are talking about, you need
to put in the additional
information – the girl is talking to
Tom.
>Use „the girl“ only in the first part
of the sentence,
> in the second part replace it with
the relative pronoun (for people,
use the relative pronoun “who”).
So the final sentence is:
Do you know the girl
who is talking to Tom?
Do you know the
girl who is talking
to Tom ?
Where do they come in
sentences?
• They usually come immediately after what
they qualify
– People who know different foreign
languages make better language teachers.
• When the relative pronoun is the subject of the
relative clause the word order is
subject+verb+object
– He showed me the rocks which he had
collected.
• When the relative pronoun is the object the word
order is object+subject+verb
– The bus came at last, which was an
enormous relief.
TYPES
• Defining relative clauses give important
information to identify the person or thing
we are talking about. We don’t use a comma.
– People who live in glass houses shouldn’t
throw stones.
• Non-defining relative clauses give
additional information about the person or
thing we are talking about. We use a comma.
– Prof. Johnson, who I have long admired, is
coming to visit us next week.
DEFINING CLAUSES
• The relative pronoun can be omitted (ø)
when it is the object of the clause:
• The mouse that the elephant loved was
very beautiful.
OR
• The mouse the elephant loved was very
beautiful.
• Both of these sentences are correct,
though the second one is more common
in spoken English.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS IN
DEFINING CLAUSES
subject
object
people
who / that
whom / that /ø
things
which / that
which / that / ø
WHO
• subject or object pronoun for people
1. Subject: I told you about the woman who lives next
door.
2. Object: (Pronoun Omission)
Mary is the girl (who/whom) we met at the party.
WHICH
• subject or object pronoun for animals
and things
1. Subject: Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?
2. Object: (Pronoun Omission) :Have you seen the book
(which ) I put on this table?
THAT
• subject or object pronoun for people,
animals and things in defining relative
clauses (who or which are also possible)
1. Subject: I don’t like the table that /which stands in the
kitchen.
2. Object: (Pronoun Omission):This is the sweater (that/
which) I bought on Saturday.
WHOSE
• possession for people animals and
things. WHOSE cannot be omitted.
Do you know the girl whose mother is a nurse?
WHOM
• object pronoun for people BUT in
defining relative clauses we
colloquially prefer who)
Pronoun omission : I
was invited by the professor (whom
/who/that) I met at the conference.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS &
ADVERBS IN DEFINING
Subject
Object
Possessi
ve
Person
Thing
Place
Time
Reason
who/that
which/that
who/whom which/that/ where
/that/ø
ø
when
why
whose
whose
WHEN
• Meaning: in/on which
• Use: refers to a time expression
(Pronoun omission): Is
there a time (when) we can meet?
WHERE
• Meaning: in/at which
• Use: refers to place
(Pronoun omission )+ preposition:
The hotel where we stay was very small.
The hotel we stay at was very small
WHY
• Meaning: for which
• Use: refers to a reason
(Pronoun omission): Is
leave now?
there a reason (why/ that) you want to
NON- DEFINING
Non-defining
clauses
add
extra
information, separated by commas
in writing, and intonation in
speaking.
“ Tom’s mother, who is 78, goes
swimming every day”
Non-defining pronouns &
adverbs CANNOT be OMITTED
Person
Thing
Subject
who
which
Object
who/whom
Which
whose
whose
Possessi
ve
Place
Time
where
when
NON-DEFINING EXAMPLES
• WHO: Last weekend I met Sue, who told me she was
going on holiday soo.
• WHOM/ WHO (as object): Sarah Ros, whom /who you
met in Madrid last week, will be at the party.
• WHICH: Sue´s house, which is in the centre of the town,
is over 1oo years old.
• WHOSE: Tina Harris, whose brother is the actor Paul
Harris, is a good friend of mine.
• WHERE: We visited a town called Christchurch, where
we had lunch in an Italian restaurant.
• WHEN: We are going on holiday in September, when
the weather isn’t so hot
Prepositions + relative pronouns
• In formal style we usually put a preposition
before the relative pronoun and we use
whom instead of who.
– The office to which Graham took us was filled
with books
• In less formal style we usually put the
preposition at the end of the relative clause.
– The office that Graham took us to was filled with
books