Defining, undefining and reduced relative clauses.

In general terms, relative clauses is a structure through which we add extra information about the
subject.

In defining relative clauses, this extra information is directly related to the subject “helping” us to
plentifully identify the subject of the independent clause by connecting all the pieces of information
together to form one clause (subordinate clause/clauses).

The elements used to connect this info are known as Relative pronouns:

Who, whose, whom (people)

That (people and things)

Which (things)

When, where, what (time, place, reason), and others.

Examples:

The car which (that) is badly parked was crashed.

I still remember the place where we met does not exist any longer.

The times when we were students were tough.

The boy who (that) is sitting next to Claire is a good friend of mine.

Jim whose leg was broken in an accident is having a surgery done next week.

As any clause we have at least two clauses (independent (highlighted in yellow) and subordinate or
dependent). As you can see, the independent clause stands by itself, meaning that the information
is fully comprehensible, while de dependent is not clear at all, but together they give more info
about the subject.

While in undefining relative clauses the extra info that is given, is related to the subject but it is not
related to the general context of the clause. There are differences between both structures:

The first one is the use of the same connectors but that:

The elements used to connect this info are known as Relative pronouns:
Who, whose, whom (people)

That (people and things)

Which (things)

When, where, what (time, place, reason), and others.}

Second, we use comas to indicate this fact.

Example:

The car mechanic , who (that) is a nice person , repaired my car

As you can see the fact that the person is nice is not related to the fact that he repaired the car…

When facing TOEFL test we must pay attention to these two differences, the use of that, and comas.

Finally, the clause reduction can only be done with defining relative clauses by using the participles
(-ing for the active voice and –ed or the irregular form of the verb in the passive voice).

Passive voice

a. The car which (that) is badly parked was crashed.

The car badly parked was crashed

Active voice.

b. The boy who (that) is sitting next to Claire is a good friend of mine.

The boy sitting next to Claire is a good friend of mine

Participle clauses are non-finite clauses. They use a present participle or a past participle to shorten
a main clause. Participle clauses are common in written English because they allow us to include
information without making long or complicated sentences. We can use participle clauses when the
participle and the verb in the main clause have the same subject. For example,

Waiting for Ellie, I made some tea. (While I was waiting for Ellie, I made some tea.)

Participle clauses do not have a specific tense. The tense is indicated by the verb in the main clause.
Participle clauses are mainly used in written texts, particularly in a literary, academic or journalistic
style.It is also common for participle clauses, especially with -ing, to follow conjunctions and
prepositions such as before, after, instead of, on, since, when, while and in spite of.

Before cooking, you should wash your hands.

Instead of complaining about it, they should try doing something positive.

On arriving at the hotel, he went to get changed.

While packing her things, she thought about the last two years.

In spite of having read the instructions twice, I still couldn’t understand how to use i