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Grammar Guide: Relative Clauses

Defining relative clauses provide essential information about a person, place, or thing using a relative pronoun like who, which, or that. Non-defining relative clauses give extra, non-essential information within commas using who, which, where, or whose but not that. The document explains the different uses of defining and non-defining relative clauses including when relative pronouns can or cannot be omitted.

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59 views2 pages

Grammar Guide: Relative Clauses

Defining relative clauses provide essential information about a person, place, or thing using a relative pronoun like who, which, or that. Non-defining relative clauses give extra, non-essential information within commas using who, which, where, or whose but not that. The document explains the different uses of defining and non-defining relative clauses including when relative pronouns can or cannot be omitted.

Uploaded by

Omaima Ayane
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Relative Clauses

1.Defining relative clauses (giving essential information)

1. Harper Lee is the woman who (that) wrote To Kill a


Mockingbird. We use a defining relative clause (=
I'm reading a book which (that) explains how to relax. a relative pronoun + verb phrase) to
That's the house where I was born.
give essential information about a
2. Is Frank the man whose brother plays for Manchester person, place or thing.
United?
It's a tree whose leaves change colour in autumn.

3. I've had a text from the girl (who/that) I met yesterday.


This is the phone (which/that) I bought last week.

1. We use the relative pronoun WHO for people, WHICH for things or animals, and
WHERE for places.

* We can use THAT instead of who or which.

2. We use WHOSE to mean 'of who', or 'of which'.


3. In some relative clauses, the verb after WHO, WHICH, or THAT has a different subject,

e.g. She's the girl who I met on the train (the subject of met is I). In these clauses, WHO,

WICH, or THAT can be omitted: She's the girl I met on the train.
* WHERE and WHOSE can never be omitted. NOT Is that the woman dog barks at

nights?
* We can't omit WHO / WHICH / THAT / WHERE if it's the same subject in both clauses.

NOT Julia is the woman works in the office with me.


2. Non-defining relative clauses (giving extra non-essential information)

- This painting, which was painted in 1860, is worth


millions of pounds.
- Last week I visited my aunt Jane, who's nearly 90 years
old.
- Burford, where my grandfather was born, is a beautiful
little town.
My neighbour, whose son goes to my son's school, has
just remarried.

We use a non-defining relative clause to give extra (often non-essential information) in a


sentence. If this clause is omitted, the sentence still makes sense.

This painting, (which was painted in 1860), is worth millions of pounds.

Non-defining relative clauses must go between commas (or a comma and a full stop).
In these clauses, we can't leave out the relative pronoun (who, which, etc.).
In these clauses we can't use THAT instead of WHO / WHICH. NOT This painting, that was
painted in 1860, is worth millions of pounds.

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