RELATIVE CLAUSES

refers to subordinate
sentence
We use Relative Clauses to

IDENTIFY
DEFINE
DESCRIBE
GIVE
INFORMATION
about a noun
Defining Relative Clauses

Non-Defining Relative Clauses

They are introduced by Relative Pronouns
 A Relative
Pronoun
cuyo,cuya
cuyos,cuyas SUBSTITUTES
the noun
it “refers” to

why ….reason
 Defining Relative Clauses
- They give “essential” information about the
first part of the sentence (main clause)

- They define / identify the person or thing

- Without them the sentence would be incomplete.

They arrested the boy what boy?

oh, I see!
They arrested the boy who stole the exams
MAIN CLAUSE
we want to give more information about Mary
Mary is a girl to identify her

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
we JOIN both sentences
She lives in Pego
we now DEFINE/IDENTIFY Mary using a RELATIVE PRONOUN

Mary is the girl WHO lives in Pego

RELATIVE
CLAUSE
the relative pronoun substitutes the noun it refers to
 the RELATIVE PRONOUN always comes
after the noun it describes/refers to

Mary is the girl WHO lives in Pego

 the RELATIVE PRONOUN can function as
subject / object

verb

Mary is the girl WHO lives in Pego

subject

That is the car WHICH crashed into the shop

verb
 subject
whom
Tom was the boy who I met in Paris
object
This is the film which we saw yesterday
(whom is used as object too, subject
but it is less frequent)
Tom was the boy who I met in Paris
when it functions as object we can omit the relative pronoun

This is the film which we saw yesterday

Tom was the boy I met in Paris

This is the film we saw yesterday
September was the month when we got married
(time)

That is the hotel where we spent our holidays

(place)

That’s the woman whose son ran over my cat

(possessive)
el fill de la qual / cuyo hijo

This is the reason why she didn’t come to the party

(reason)
Choose the correct relative pronoun:
1. This is the room which / where I keep my computer.
2. I’m sure that’s the man who / whose picture was in the paper.
3. What’s the name of the film who / which you saw? 1

4. Christmas is the time of year when / where there are many

parties.
5. Eva doesn’t like the present whose / which Owen gave her.
6. I am looking for the person who / which sent me that e-mail.

In which sentences can you omit the Relative Pronoun?

between ,commas,
Combine the sentences with relative clauses.
(Use commas where needed)
1- We ordered a book. It was very expensive.
We ordered a book which was very expensive.

2- I have one black cat. His name is Blacky.

I have one black cat whose name is Blacky
3- You made an offer. We cannot accept it.

You made an offer (which) we cannot accept.

4- Sydney is the largest Australian city. It is not the capital of Australia.
Sydney,which is not the capital of Australia,is the largest Australian city.
Preposition with Relative Pronouns
In formal English we put the preposition before the
relative pronoun
Tina is a friend. I went on holiday with her.

Tina is the friend with who I went on holiday.

whom
However, it is more usual to put the preposition at the end of
the sentence and (omit) the Relative Pronoun

Tina is the friend (who) I went on holiday with.

affirmative
verb