Relative clauses

RELATIVE CLAUSES

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Do you know what are relative

clauses?

And relative pronouns?

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To make a relative clause you

need to use a relative pronoun.

The RELATIVE PRONOUNS you use depends on the thing you’re talking about. The most basic ones are these:FOR PEOPLE WHO/THAT

FOR THINGS WHICH/THAT

FOR PLACES WHERE

FOR TIMES WHEN

FOR REASONS WHY

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Relative clauses are formed by joining two sentences.

For example:

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“Peter is the student”+ “He comes from Glasgow”:

“Peter is the student WHO comes from Glasgow”.

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“The books are on the table” + “They are mine”:

“The books WHICH are on the table are mine”.

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When we join 2 sentences with a Relative Pronoun, Adjective or Adverb, we have to suppress the noun/ pronoun/ possessive that the Relative replaces.

“I’ve just met Tom” + “Tom seems to be a nice guy”:

“I’ve just met Tom, WHO seems to be a nice guy”

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Two types of relative clauses:

a)Defining relative clauses.

b) Non defining relative clauses.

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Defining Relative Clauses

• They give you the information you

need to understand the sentence.

• Second part starts with a relative

pronoun i.e. who, which…

• Doesn’t have commas

• Can use ‘That’ instead of who,

which…

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I spoke to the man WHO gave you the news.

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The book WHICH you lent me is

really good.

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The place WHERE I

live is very beautiful

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The month WHEN I travelled to Lisbon was August

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Non Defining Relative Clauses

• They give extra information.

• They are always written between

commas.

• If you leave out the relative it still

makes sense.

• We can’t use that instead of which or

who in these sentences.

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Mark’s sister, who’s 35, goes swimming every day.

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Barcelona, which is Catalonia’s largest city, is situated in on the Mediterranean coast.

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OTHER RELATIVE PRONOUNS

WHOM• This is hardly used in spoken English and not often in

written English. It sounds very formal to most people.• Use it only after prepositions.• There ‘s usually another less formal way to say this in

English.

For example:The woman to whom he was talking was his sister.The woman that he was talking to was his sister.

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Whose• This is used to show possession. It

means basically “of who(m)”.• It can always be used for people and

animals.

That dog whose bone you took is going to bite you.

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That city, WHOSE football team lost the final, never wins.

WHAT

• This can be literally translated to

mean ‘the thing that’.

• It is very common at the beginning of

a sentence to emphasize.

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What I don’t understand is why she married him

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I don’t know WHAT he is going to do next.

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PRACTICE. Choose the

correct answer:

He ‘s the actor to WHOM/WHO they

gave the Oscar.

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PRACTICE. Choose the

correct answer:

He ‘s the actor to WHOM they gave the

Oscar.

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WHICH/WHAT most frightened me about the house were the noises I heard at

night

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WHAT most frightened me about the house were the noises I heard at night

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I couldn’t hear what/that they were saying

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I couldn’t hear what they were saying

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Here’s the computer program whom/whose/that I told you.

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Here’s the computer program that I told you about.

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Peter comes from Witney, that/who/which is near Oxford.

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Peter comes from Witney, that/who/which is near Oxford.