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Relative Clauses
Relative Clauses
Relative Clauses
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Relative clauses can be introduced by:
• a relative pronoun: who (whom),
which, that, whose
• no relative pronoun, Ø.
• where, why and when instead of a
relative pronoun
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Defining
Defining ,identifying,
,identifying, definite
definite
or
or restrictive
restrictive clauses
clauses
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You never put a comma or a dash in front of a defining
relative clause.
¡
E.g.:
The woman who owns this cabin will come back in the autumn.
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Non-defining ,indefinite or
non-restrictive clauses
• A non-defining relative clause usually has a
comma in front of it and a comma after it,
unless it is at the end of a sentence, in
which case you just put a full stop. Dashes
are sometimes used instead of commas.
e.g:
• Sir Denis, who is 78, has let it be known
that much of his collection is to be left
to the nation.
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They have three main characteristics:
• In speech the intonation is different
from the noun they qualify.
• In spelling they are separated by
commas.
• In meaning they are not essential to
the meaning of the clause.
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Relative clauses referring to people
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Relative clauses referring to things
When a non-defining clause relates to a thing or a group of
things, you use ‘which’ as the subject or object.
I am teaching at the Selly Oak Centre, which is just over the
road.
He was a man of considerable inherited wealth, which he
ultimately spent on his experiments.
WARNING
You cannot use ‘that’ to begin a non-defining relative clause.
For example, you cannot say ‘She sold her car, that she had
bought the year before’. You must say ‘She sold her car,
which she had bought the year before’.
Non-defining clauses cannot be used without a relative
pronoun. For example, you cannot say
‘She sold her car, she had bought the year before’.
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• ‘whose’ in relative clauses
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Relative clauses with ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘why’
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Relative clauses can sometimes be reduced to non-
finite clauses.
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• Often, in a defining relative clause, the
relative pronoun is omitted and there is a
change of word order in the sentence: the
antecedent comes first.
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Credits
Designed by
Prof.Stella Maris Berdaxagar
Quemú Quemú
La Pampa,Argentina
April,2005.
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