Relative Clauses

Hello Guys

Today, we'll focus on...

RELATIVEvs NON-RELATIVE CLAUSES

What is a Relative clause?

We can use relative clauses to join two English sentences, or to give more information about something. ''I bought a new car. It is very fast.'' → I bought a new car that is very fast.

A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about: I like the woman who lives next door. (If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).

In defining relative clauses...

1.The relative pronoun is the subject.First, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the subject of a defining relative clause. We can use 'who', 'which' or 'that'. We use 'who' for people and 'which' for things. We can use 'that' for people or things. Remember that we can't drop the relative pronoun. So, we can't say '' The girl lives next door is blonde'' by omitting the pronoun. We will say ''The girl who/that lives next door...''

Examples:

I'm looking for a secretary who / that can use a computer well.She has a son who / that is a doctor. I sent a letter which / that arrived three weeks later. We bought a house which / that is 200 years old.

When the relative pronoun is the object...

2. Now, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the object of the clause. We always use who, that and which but, unlike the previous case, we can omit them if the pronoun is the object. ''She loves the chocolate (that-which) I bought.''

Examples

We went to the village (which / that) Lucy recommended OR We went to the village Lucy recommended.The bike (which / that) I loved was stolen OR The bike I loved was stolen. As we can see, both sentences still make sense even without the relative pronoun.

Now, let's do some practice :)

Complete the sentences using who,that and which, and say when we can omit the relative pronoun and when we can't omit it:The university _____ she likes is famous. The woman _______ my brother loves is from Mexico. The cat ____ is eating is so sweet. The man _____ is playing the piano is my brother.

SOLUTIONS

The university (which / that) she likes is famous. We can omit the pronoun. The woman (who / that) my brother loves is from Mexico. We can omit the pronoun. The cat that is eating is so sweet. (We can't omit it) The man who is playing the piano is my brother. (We can't omit it)

Non-defining Relative clauses

We don't use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses, so we need to use 'which' if the pronoun refers to a thing, and 'who' if it refers to a person. We can't drop the relative pronoun in this kind of clause. My boss, who is very nice, lives in Manchester. My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars. Yesterday I called our friend Julie, who lives in New York. My mother's house, which I love, is very small. I love New York, which has many interesting places.

Remember that...

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We don't need this information to understand the sentence. I live in London, which has some fantastic parks. (Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is extra information).

Let's do some practice

Complete the following non-defining relative clauses:Dublin, ____ is the capital of Ireland, is my favourite city. Russel Crowe, ____ starred in Gladiator, was born in New Zealand. Mr Kemp, _____ teaches maths, is from Australia. That red car, ____ is a Ferrari, is very expensive.

SOLUTIONS

Dublin, which is the capital of Ireland, is my favourite city.Russel Crowe, who starred in Gladiator, was born in New Zealand. Mr Kemp, who teaches maths, is from Australia. That red car, which is a Ferrari, is very expensive.

See you guys!