relative clause

1. 1

2. • It substitutes a reason. 2
• WHO It substitutes a person.
• WHICH It substitutes an animal or a thing.
• THAT It substitutes a person, an animal or a thing.
• WHOSE It substitutes a possession.
• WHEN It substitutes a time.
• WHERE It substitutes a place.
• Why

3. 3
• For example: John is the man who has won the lottery.
• Relative pronouns (who, that, whom, which…) are used to qualify that
noun.
• There are two types of Relative Clauses:
1. Defining Relative Clauses
2. Non-defining Relative Clauses
WHO refers to the noun “man”

4. 4
• These clauses provide important information which is needed to understand the
sentence.
• E.g. The couple who live next door have three dogs.
• When we use a defining relative clause, the relative pronoun may be the subject or the
object of the main clause.
• Examples:
• I have a friend who speaks German. (Subject) He speaks German.
• The girl who you saw speaks Chinese. (Object) You saw her.
• That can be omitted in this type of clauses. We normally use that as subject after words
such as something, anything, all, little, much, non, and superlatives. E.g. I’ve told you all
that I know about her.
This clause define the
couple

5. 5
• These clauses provide extra information to the main sentences. The extra information is not
necessary to define the noun.
• These clauses must be written between commas.
• The relative pronoun cannot be omitted in these kind of clauses.
• E.g. The Good Earth, which I’m reading, is a good book.
• Who or which cannot be used instead of that in these clauses.
• E.g. Ram, who helped us, seemed nice.
• Of which or of whom can be used after words such as all, both, each, many, most, neither,
none, part, some; a number such as one, two, half, the first etc.; and superlatives.
• E.g. The building, part of which is damaged, needs renovation.
If we omit the relative
pronoun “which”, the
sentence will not make
sense.

6. NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
• NON-DEFINING CLAUSES give extra information, that is, we could
remove it without changing the meaning of the sentence.
• They are always separated by commas.
• THAT is never used.
• Relative Pronouns can NEVER be omitted.
• The antencedent is usually a proper name of a person or thing and it
contains a possessive like ‘my’, ‘his’, ‘her’, the definite article ‘the’ or
demonstratives like ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’ or ‘those’

7. EXAMPLES:
Mary, who arrived late at the party, is my cousin
Paris, which is the capital of France, is a beutiful city.
Paul, who I saw at the party, is so handsome.
That car, which she bought last month, is a Ferrari.

8. THE IMPORTANCE OF A COMMA….
Ø Can you tell the difference in meaning?
• My brother, who is a doctor, lives in Africa.
• = non-defining, your probably have only 1 brother
• My brother who is a doctor, lives in Africa.
• = defining, you have more brothers and want to talk
about this one

9. 9
• I saw the woman who visited you.
• He bought the bike (which) you like.
• I bought the magazine, which was fantastic.
• Is that the book (that) I lent you?
• The film is about a man whose wife disappears.
• London, where I went last week, is near here.
• Is that the town where you were born?
• I’ll never forget the day when they arrived.
• My mother, who lives in Madrid, is 65 years old.
• Jane, who works in my office, is very nice.
• Maria, who is Spanish, speaks good English.
• John, whose son is an actor, is my friend.
• I’m going to Rome in June, when the weather is warm.

10. 10
• The relative pronoun is omitted if:
1. It is not the subject of the sentences it introduces.
• The factory that closed last month is over there. (Object)
• The factory closed last month is over there.
• Tell me the name of the girl that you were talking to. (object)
• Tell me the name of the girl you were talking to.
2. It is not preceded by a preposition.
• What’s the name of the hotel in which you stayed last week?
• Is that the man that you lived with in Paris?
• Is that the man you lived with in Paris?
• It is not a non-defining clause. (I have a friend who speaks French.)
• WHOSE is never omitted.

11. CHADELEL'S SCHOOL 11
That instead of which and who
Note that ‘that’ can only be used in defining relative
clauses.
For example, in the sentence
‘The coffee machine which I bought for my wife was
expensive.
The relative clause ‘which I bought for my wife’ explains
which coffee machine we are talking about.
In such clauses ‘that’ can be used instead of ‘which’.

12. CHADELEL'S SCHOOL 12
In non-defining relative clauses ‘that’ cannot be used.
Study the example given below.
Rabindranath Tagore ,who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was
also an accomplished painter.
Here the relative clause ‘who won the Nobel Prize for Literature’ is
not required to identify Rabindranath Tagore.
He has already been identified by his name.

13. 13

14. 14
Key
1. Which/ that , glass
2. Where, Geneva
3. Which/ that, gazpacho
4. When, grapes
5. When, good night
6. Which/ that, giraffe
7. Which/ that, green
8. Which, that, geography
9. Which/ that, gas
10. Who, God
11. Which/ that, Gasolene
12. When, great