Grammar / Relative Clauses

R elative Clauses

There are two types of relative clauses; defining and non-defining.

Defining

• Defining clauses explain exactly which person, thing or place you are talking about.

• They define them in some way and are essential to the meaning of the sentence.

A) The movie that/which I watched last night was really good.

(Which movie was good?)

B) The woman who/that lives next door to me has a few problems.

(Which person has problems?)

C) The person who/that you need to speak to is on the second floor.

D) The person to whom you need to speak is on the second floor (very formal).

(Who is on the second floor?)

E) The suburb where I live has lots of trees.

F) The suburb which I live in has lots of trees.

The suburb in which I live has a lot of trees. (Formal)

(Which suburb has a lot of trees?)

* Notice the use of prepositions in sentences C, D and F.

Pronouns

	Subject	Object
Person	Who / that	Who / That / Whom (only in formal situations)
Thing	That / which	That / Which
Place	Which + preposition	Where
Possessive	Whose	Whose
Time	When Why
Reason

Non-Defining Relative Clauses

• Non-defining relative clauses give extra, non-essential information about the subject or object of a sentence.

• The non-defining clause is placed between commas, or, if it is the final clause of a sentence, after a comma.

• Non-defining clauses are commonly used in written form.

• The relative pronoun cannot be omitted in non-defining clauses.

Examples

1. My lecturer, who is an expert in his field, has just had a book published.

2. A great place to visit on the Gold Coast is Tamborine Mountain, which has great views.

3. Tamborine Mountain, where you can do some wonderful walks, is a great place to visit.

4. My lecturer, whose book has just been published, appeared on TV last night.

5. The book was written in the early 90s, when the author had his first psychic experience.

6. *Note: ‘That’ cannot be used in non-defining relative clauses.

Pronouns

	Subject	Object
Person	Who	Who / Whom (only in formal situations)
Thing	Which	Which
Place	Which	Where
Possessive	Whose	Whose
Time		When
Reason		Why

Summary

Defining relative clauses	Non-defining relative clauses
Can use ‘that’ instead of ‘who’ or ‘which’	Cannot use ‘that’
Can omit the relative pronoun when it’s the object of the clause	Cannot omit the pronoun
Provide essential information	Provide extra, non-essential information
Do not use commas	Use commas

Other Points

Omitting the relative pronoun

In defining relative clauses the relative pronoun can be omitted when it refers to the object of the clause.

If we refer to the examples above, we can see that the pronoun can be omitted in sentences A, C & F.

1. The movie (that/which) I watched last night was very good.

3. The person (who/that) you need to speak to is on the second floor.

F) The suburb (which) I live in has lots of trees

The use of ‘Where’

‘Where’ is primarily used for places, but can also be used for books, movies and in academic theorems.

‘Where’ can never be omitted from a relative clause.

‘Where’ always refers to the object of a clause.

Websites

http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blgr_relative_intro.htm

http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eap/2004/u6/relativeclauses.htm

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/645/01/

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Exercises

1. Are these sentences correct or not?

1. The woman, that just left, is the lecturer.

2. Elephants, which are large and grey, live in both Asia and Africa.

3. My father who lives in Scotland is a lawyer.

4. Ian whose car was stolen last night is doing an MBA at Bond.

5. The suburb in which I live is very beautiful.

6. McDonalds, where is famous for BigMacs, is an incredibly successful company.

7. The man with the beard is the one who stole the ipod.

8. I handed in my assignment, which was late, to the receptionist, who was very friendly.

9. Ana drank the water, who is from Brazil and studies International Relations.

10. The computer Hassan brought was on special offer.

2. Write the sentence again using a relative clause to include the information in brackets.

Eg. Shirley works in the Student Learning Support. (Shirley goes swimming every day)

Shirley, who goes swimming every day, works in the Student Learning Support.

1. We often visit our friends in Brisbane. (Brisbane is an hour’s drive away).

2. Thank you for your email. (I was happy to receive it).

3. The population of London is now falling. (London was once the largest city in the world).

4. Susan lost her mobile phone. (She had bought it recently).

5. Shirley went on holiday. (Her sister lives in Belgium)

6. We went to Surfers Paradise. (We went swimming there).

7. The cyclone damaged the university. (Nobody expected the cyclone)

8. The café is opposite the lake. (There is a fountain there)

9. The lecturer was mentioned in the speech(His students all passed with distinctions).

Answers

1. Wrong. We are defining which woman left to identify the lecturer. In addition, we can’t use the pronoun ‘that’ after a comma.

Correct sentence: The woman that just left is the lecturer

2. Correct. We are not defining which elephants are large and grey as they are all large and grey!

3. Wrong. You can only have one father, so we are not defining which father is a lawyer.

Correct sentence: My father ,who lives in Scotland, is a lawyer.

4. Wrong. We are not defining which Ian, but giving extra information about Ian.

Correct sentence: Ian, whose car was stolen last night, is doing an MBA at Bond.

5. Correct. We are identifying the suburb. Note that we can also say “The suburb which I live in” and place the preposition at the end. This is more informal.

6. Wrong. We cannot use the pronoun ‘where’ to refer to the subject (McDonalds).

Correct sentence: McDonalds, which is famous for BigMacs, is an incredibly successful company.

7. Correct. We are identifying the thief.

8. Correct. We are giving extra information. The assignment was late, and the receptionist was friendly.

9. Wrong. This sentence means that the water is from Brazil. We need to put the pronoun (in this case ‘who’) next to the word it is giving extra information about (ie Ana).

Correct sentence: Ana, who is from Brazil and studies International Relations, drank the water.

10. Correct. We can omit the pronoun (which) as it refers to the object of the clause (ie the computer)

B

1. We often visit our friends in Brisbane, which is an hours drive away.

2. Thank you for your email, which I was happy to receive.

3. The population of London, which was once the largest city in the world, is now falling. .

4. Susan lost her mobile phone, which she had bought recently.

5. Shirley, whose sister lives in Belgium, went on holiday.

6. We went to Surfers Paradise, where we went swimming.

7. The cyclone , which nobody expected, damaged the university.

8. The café is opposite the lake, where there is a fountain.

9. The lecturer, whose students all passed with distinctions, was mentioned in the speech.