RELATIVE CLAUSES

Two examples

Here’s the book which you were looking for.

Mrs. Jackson, who is very intelligent, lives on the corner.

Relative pronouns / adverbs Who people that in defining Which things that in

defining That people/things only in defining Where places =at/in which Whose possession replaces

his/her… When time =the day on

which Why reason the reason for which Whom people after

prepositions

Remember

That: can only be used in defining

Where and Whose: cannot be left out or replaced by “that”

Which: can refer to one clause in non-defining relative clauses: He got married again, which

surprised me.

Relative clauses

Relative clauses provide extra information. This information can either define something (defining clause), or provide unnecessary, added information (non-defining clause).

Defining Relative Clauses

They identify or classify nouns. The information provided in a defining

relative clause is crucial in understanding the meaning of the sentence.

People who/that take exercise live longer.

The woman who/that lives next door has been arrested.

That / pronoun omission

We can replace WHO/WHICH with THAT. Children who (that) play with fire are in

great danger of harm. -We can leave out the pronoun when it

functions as object: The city (which/that) I visited was great.

Non-defining relative clauses Non-defining relative clauses provide

interesting additional information which is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence.

They tell us more about a person/thing. That cannot be used The relative pronoun cannot be omitted

Mr. Rogers, who is a skilled worker, has been fired.

what / that

= the things which It is not a pronoun, so it is not used

after a noun/pronoun I hope you have what I need (the

thing which) They only thing that keeps me awake

is coffee. So, after a noun/pronoun: use that.

Prepositions

1-Before the pronoun: more formal He was respected by the people with whom he worked.

It is a society to which many important people belong.

2-At the end: less formal He was respected by the people (that/who) he worked with.