Relative Clauses Part 1

RELATIVE CLAUSES
PART I:
EXPLANATION AND
STEPS TO MAKE
THEM
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
 DEFINING CLAUSES give essential information
about their antecedent and without them the meaning
will be incomplete.
 These never go between commas.
 WHO, WHOM and WHICH can be substituted by
THAT in a more colloquial context.
 WHO, WHOM, WHICH AND THAT can be omitted if
they are the object of the relative clause, that is, if
they are followed by a sibject.
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
EXAMPLES:
Mary is the girl who arrived late at the party.
Mary is the girl who I told you about yesterday.
The book which was on the table was new.
The book which I bought is about music.

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE
CLAUSES
 NON-DEFINING CLAUSES give extra
information, that is, we could remove it without
changing the meaning of the sentence.
 They are always separated by commas.
 THAT is never used.
 Pronouns can be NEVER omitted.
 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’
EXAMPLES:
Mary,who arrived late at the party,is my cousin
Paris, which is the capital of France, is a

beautiful city.
Paul, who I saw at the party, is so handsome.
That car, which she bought last month, is a

Ferrari.
RELATIVE PRONUONS
 WHO
 WHOM
 WHICH
 WHOSE
 WHERE
 WHEN
 THAT
WHO
 It is used to talk about people
 It can be the subject or the object of the relative
clause
 In defining relative clauses it can be always
replaced by THAT. More colloquial.
 In defining relative clauses it can be omitted if it
is the object of the relative clause, that is, if it
is followed by the subject of the relative clause
and, if it does not have a preposition before.
Eg: Mary,who arrived late at the party,is my cousin

WHOM
 It is used to talk about people. More formal
than WHO
 It is always the object of the relative clause,
that is, it always has a subject afterwards.
 In defining relative clauses it can be replaced
by THAT.
 In defining relative clauses it can be omitted
if it does not have a preposition before.
Eg: Mary is the girl whom I told you about

yesterday.
WHICH
 It is used to talk about anything but people.
 It can be the subject or the object of the relative
clause
 In defining relative clauses it can be always
replaced by THAT. More colloquial.
 In defining relative clauses it can be omitted if it
is the object of the relative clause, that is, if it
is followed by the subject of the relative clause
and, if it does not have a preposition before.
 That car, which she bought last month, is a

Ferrari.
WHOSE
 It is used to talk about possession.
 It cannot be substituted by any pronouns.
 It cannot be omitted in any case.
 It is always followed by whatever is
possessed.
 Eg: That is the boy whose mother is a doctor

WHERE
 It is used to talk about places when they are
not the subject nor the object of the relative
clause, that is when they are followed by a
subject and they are not an object in the
relative clause.
That is the museum where I went last month

WHEN
 It is used to talk about times when they are
not the subject nor the object of the relative
clause, that is when they are followed by a
subject and they are not an object in the
relative clause.
Eg: May is the month when flowers bloom.

THAT
 It only appears in Defing Relative Clauses.
 It may substitute WHO, WHOM and WHICH.
 It can be omitted if it is the object of the
relative clause, that is, if it is followed by
the subject.
Eg: Paul is the man that I like so much.

RELATIVE CLAUSES
DEFINING NON-DEFINING
PRONOUNS PRONOUNS
WHO/WHOM/WHICH WHO/
THAT WHOM/
WHICH/
WHOSE/ WHOSE/
WHERE/ WHERE/
WHEN WHEN
STEPS TO JOIN TWO SENTENCES
IN A RELATIVE CLAUSE
1.- Find the common element
The man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.

2.- Cross out the second element.
That man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.
3.- Start copying the first sentence until the

first common element.
4.- Write the relative pronoun:

who
which
whose
That man
5.- Copy the second sentence, except the
element we had crossed out.
I saw yesterday
The man who
6.- If there is anything left from the first

sentence, copy it afterwards.
is very tall.
The man who I saw yesterday

7.- Check if you can write THAT instead of
WHO, WHOM, WHICH
The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.

that
8.- Check if you can omit the pronouns.
The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.

that
9.- The sentence is ready!!!
The man I saw yesterday is very tall.

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RELATIVE CLAUSES

If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb,

Mary is the girl who arrived late at the party.

Mary is the girl who I told you about yesterday.

The book which was on the table was new.

The book which I bought is about music.

Mary,who arrived late at the party,is my cousin

Paris, which is the capital of France, is a

Paul, who I saw at the party, is so handsome.

That car, which she bought last month, is a

Eg: Mary,who arrived late at the party,is my cousin

Eg: Mary is the girl whom I told you about

 That car, which she bought last month, is a

 Eg: That is the boy whose mother is a doctor

That is the museum where I went last month

Eg: May is the month when flowers bloom.

Eg: Paul is the man that I like so much.

1.- Find the common element

The man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.

That man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.

3.- Start copying the first sentence until the

4.- Write the relative pronoun:

The man who

6.- If there is anything left from the first

The man who I saw yesterday

The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.

The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.

9.- The sentence is ready!!!

The man I saw yesterday is very tall.

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