Relative clauses - nondefining relative clauses

Relative clauses - non-defining relative clauses

Relative

clausesaddextrainformation
toasentencebydefininganoun.They
areusuallydividedintotwotypes
defining relative clausesandnondefining relative clauses.

Non-defining

relative clauses

Lookatthissentence.
My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every
day.
whois87isanon-defining relative clause.It
addsextrainformationtothesentence.Ifwetake
theclauseoutofthesentence,thesentencestill
hasthesamemeaning.

Look

at some more examples.

The film, which stars Tom Carter, is released on
Friday.
My eldest son, whose work takes him all over the
world, is in Hong Kong at the moment.
The car, which can reach speeds of over 300km/ph,
costs over $500,000.
Non-defining relative clauses add extra information
to sentences.

Defining

or non-defining?

Rememberthatdefining relative clausesareusedto

addimportantinformation.Thesentencewouldhavea
differentmeaningwithoutthedefining relative
clause.
Im going to wear the skirt that I bought in London. The
definingrelativeclausetellsuswhichskirt.
The skirt, which is a lovely dark blue colour, only cost
10. Thenon-definingrelativeclausedoesnttellus
whichskirtitgivesusmoreinformationaboutthe
skirt.

Defining or non-defining?

Non-defining

relative clausescanusemost
relativepronouns(which,whoseetc,)but
theyCANTusethatandtherelativepronoun
canneverbeomitted.
The film, that stars Tom Carter, is released on
Friday.
Non-defining relative clausesaremoreoften
usedinwrittenEnglishthaninspokenEnglish.
Youcantellthataclauseisnon-definingbecause
itisseparatedbycommasateachendofthe
clause.

Englishteacher:VilsonShehu

-Seemoreat:
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