Classification ,structure and examples .

1. Relative clauses Relative clauses provide extra information about nouns they modify. They have the function of adjectives. The information can either define something ( defining clause ), or provide unnecessary, but interesting, added information ( non-defining clause ).

3. Defining ,identifying, definite or restrictive clauses These clauses have a definite relative pronoun as a subordinating word. A definite relative pronoun has an antecedent. E.g.: We heard the things that they said.

8. Relative clauses referring to people When a non-defining clause relates to a person or group of people, you use ‘who ’ as the subject of the clause, or ‘ who ’ or ‘ whom ’ as the object of the clause. Heath Robinson, who died in 1944, was a graphic artist and cartoonist. I was in the same group as Janice, who I like a lot. She was engaged to a sailor, whom she had met at Dartmouth.

11. Relative clauses with ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ ‘ When’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ can be used in defining relative clauses after certain nouns. ‘When’ is used after ‘time’ and other time words, ‘where’ is used after ‘place’ or place words, and ‘why’ is used after ‘reason’. This is one of those occasions when I regret not being able to drive. That was the room where I did my homework. There are several reasons why we can’t do that. ‘ When’ and ‘where’ can be used in non-defining relative clauses after expressions of time and place. This happened in 1957, when I was still a baby. She has just come back from a holiday in Crete, where Alex and I went last year. They are used after indefinite pronouns such as ‘someone’, ‘anyone’, and ‘everything’.

12. Relative clauses can sometimes be reduced to non-finite clauses. For example, instead of saying ‘Give it to the man who is wearing the bowler hat’, you can say ‘Give it to the man wearing the bowler hat’. Similarly, instead of saying ‘The bride, who was smiling happily, chatted to the guests’, you can say ‘The bride, smiling happily, chatted to the guests’.