RELATIVE CLAUSES

WHAT ARE RELATIVE CLAUSES?

Subordinate clauses which allow us to add information

about people or things we are talking to, without a need
to repeat the name
e.g. That is the house. The house was built on the main
road.
That is the house which was built on the main road.
Relative clauses are introduced just after the
antecedent and are introduced by a pronoun
or a relative adverb.
There are two types of relative clauses:
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
 DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
They give essential information about their
antecedent and without them, the meaning will
be incompleted. That is why you write them
without commas. (oraciones especificativas)

The computer which we bought is very expensive

The man who is coming will bring us the present
 Relative pronouns can’t be omitted if it’s the subject of the
relative clauses.
The man who visited us yesterday is an actor.
The house that was so old was rebuilt.
But if it’s not the subject it can be omitted
The man (whom/that) I met at the party told
me the truth
The house (which/that) we bought is very
comfortable
If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb,
then it can’t be omitted. If the relative is followed
by a subject + verb, then it’s almost sure you can
drop it
whose can’t be omitted, though it’s never a
subject
e.g. The horse whose leg you broke had to be killed
‘what’ means ‘el que’ ‘las cosas que’ and is used when the
antecedent is understood
e.g. I know what you did last summer.
After prepositions you write whom for people and which for
things, but it is more common to place prepositions at the
end of the sentence (and it is more usual in spoken
English).

e.g. This is the boy about whom you were asking me

This is the boy (who) you were asking me about.

Only who and which, you can’t use it with ‘that’

 NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

If we remove this relative clause, there’s no problem to

understand the main sentence, since it gives extra information.
Thus, we write it between commas.
e.g. The European Police Force, which began working in 1999,
is called Europol.
The antencedent is usually a proper name of a person or
thing and it contains a possessive like ‘my’, ‘his’, ‘her’, the
definite article ‘the’ or demonstratives like ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’
or ‘those’:
My house, which is quite comfortable, needs
redecorating.
This book, which I bought last week, is not as
interesting as I thought.
 MAIN FEATURES
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
- Always neccessary. - No neccessary.
- Relatives can be subject or object. - Always between commas.
- Subject relatives can’t be omitted. - ‘That’ is not allowed.
- Object relatives can be omitted. - The relative pronoun can’t be omitted.
- «THAT» can be used with people and - It’s less frequent than defining relative clauses.
things. It is more formal and they are usually used in
- What can be used. written texts.
 SUMMARY
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE
WHO AND THAT REFER TO PEOPLE WHO REFERS TO PEOPLE
There are many holidaymakers who / that prefer travelling in In the past some people, who were rich, used to visit
their own country battlefields.

WHICH AND THAT REFER TO OBJECTS / WHICH REFERS TO THINGS

THINGS He sent me flowers, which was very nice of him.
Dark tourism is a phenomenon which / that is attracting
many people

WHEN REFERS TO A MOMENT IN TIME WHEN REFERS TO A MOMENT IN TIME

It was in 1986 when the Chernobyl disaster took place. I went to Italy last year, when I enjoyed a lot.

WHERE REFERS TO A PARTICULAR PLACE WHERE REFERS TO A PARTICULAR PLACE

Many people visit places where tragedies have happened. They visited Iniesta, where they had a great time.

WHOSE REFERS TO POSSESSION WHOSE REFERS TO POSSESSION

Dr Barrett is a researcher whose studey of dark tourism has Dalí, whose pictures are wonderful, painted this one.
just been completed.
EXERCISES
• 1 You asked me to get a paper. Here’s the paper.
• the paper which / that you asked me to get
Here’s __________________________________________________________
• 2 You recommended a film. We went to see the film but we didn’t think much of it.
• to see the film which / that you recommended but we didn’t think much of it.
We went____________________________________________________________
• 3 My sister bought a new car last month. The car has broken down four times already.
• which / that my sister bought last month has broken down four times already.
The car _____________________________________________________________
• 4 You didn’t recognise an actor on television last night. The actor was Kiefer Sutherland.
• The actor who / that you didn’t recognise on television last night was Kiefer Sutherland.
___________________________________________________________
• 5 Jane had some friends at school. Only a very few of the friends went on to university.
a very few of the friends who / that Jane had at school went on to university.
• Only _______________________________________________________________
• 6 My father had an operation for his heart problem. The operation was only a partial success.
• The operation ________________________________________________________
which / that my father had for his heart problem was only a partial success.
• 7 Mark wrote an essay while we were on holiday. The essay has won a prize in the school
competition.
• The essay ___________________________________________________________
which / that Mark wrote while were on holiday has won a prize in the school.
• 8 It was rude of you not to invite me to your wedding.
• You didn’t invite me to your wedding, ________________________________________
which was rude of you.
• 9 It was stupid of you not to tell me about it.
• You didn’t tell me about it,________________________________________________
which was stupied of you.
THE END