RELATIVE CLAUSES

We use relative clauses to give additional information about something without starting another
sentence. By combining sentences with a relative clause, your text becomes more fluent and you
can avoid repeating certain words.

Some quick examples:

I bought a new shirt. It is very fashion.

→ I bought a new shirt that is very fashion.

He lives in Los Angeles. He likes living in Los Angeles.

→ He lives in Los Angeles, which he likes.

How you can see in the last examples, using relative clauses or prepositions, sentences take more
complexity of expression even though several words are abbreviated.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

The first step is knowing about this kind of pronouns. Look at and check it out this list:

relative
use
pronoun

who subject or object pronoun for people

which subject or object pronoun for animals and things

which referring to a whole sentence

whose possession for people animals and things

whom object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative clauses (in defining relative clauses we
colloquially prefer who)

"Whom" is used to refer to the indirect object of the verb, but we do not use it much in colloquial
English. More often we use "who" instead of "whom".

that subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are
also possible).

That "is the relative pronoun most used in spoken English, since it can be used with both people and
things. It is used to replace "which", "who" or "whom" in clauses that define the noun.

How to Form Relative Clauses?

Let’s see how we form sentences, using Relative Pronouns!

Imagine, a beautiful girl is talking to Paul.

You want to know who she is and ask another friend whether he knows her. You could say:
 A beautiful girl is talking to Paul. Do you know the girl?

That sounds rather complicated, doesn't it? It would be easier with a relative clause: you put
both pieces of information into one sentence. Start with the most important thing – you want to
know who the girl is.

Do you know the girl …

As your friend cannot know which girl you are talking about, you need to put in the additional
information – the girl is talking to Tom. Use „the girl“ only in the first part of the sentence, in
the second part replace it with the relative pronoun (for people, use the relative pronoun
„who“). So the final sentence is:

Do you know the girl who is talking to Paul?

Subject Pronoun or Object Pronoun?

To use clauses like these, now we must know What “Subject Pronoun” and “Object
Pronoun” mean and how we can differentiate.

Subject and object pronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms - who, which, that are used
for subject and object pronouns. You can, however, distinguish them as follows:

If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a subject pronoun. Subject
pronouns must always be used.

the peach which is lying on the table

If the relative pronoun is not followed by a verb (but by a noun or pronoun), the relative
pronoun is an object pronoun. Object pronouns can be dropped in defining relative clauses, which
are then called Contact Clauses.

the peach (which) George lay on the table

CLASSIFICATION

Now that we have the basic knowledge, we can study the classification.

Defining and Non-defining

A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about:

 I like the woman who lives next door.

(If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We don't need this
information to understand the sentence.

 I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.

(Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is extra information).
 Defining relative clauses:

1: The relative pronoun is the subject:

First, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the subject of a defining relative clause.

We can use 'who', 'which' or 'that'. We use 'who' for people and 'which' for things. We can use
'that' for people or things.

The relative clause can come after the subject or the object of the sentence. We can't drop the
relative pronoun.

For example (clause after the object of the sentence):

 I'm looking for a secretary who / that can use a computer well.
 She has a son who / that is a doctor.
 We bought a house which / that is 200 years old.
 I sent a letter which / that arrived three weeks later.

More examples (clause after the subject of the sentence):

 The people who / that live on the island are very friendly.
 The man who / that phoned is my brother.
 The camera which / that costs £100 is over there.
 The house which / that belongs to Julie is in London.

Try an exercise where the relative pronoun is the subject here.

2: The relative pronoun is the object:

Next, let's talk about when the relative pronoun is the object of the clause. In this case we can
drop the relative pronoun if we want to. Again, the clause can come after the subject or the object
of the sentence. Here are some examples:

(Clause after the object)

 She loves the chocolate (which / that) I bought.

 We went to the village (which / that) Lucy recommended.
 John met a woman (who / that) I had been to school with.
 The police arrested a man (who / that) Jill worked with.

(Clause after the subject)

 The bike (which / that) I loved was stolen.

 The university (which / that) she likes is famous.
 The woman (who / that) my brother loves is from Mexico.
 The doctor (who / that) my grandmother liked lives in New York.

Non-defining relative clauses:

We don't use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses, so we need to use 'which' if the pronoun
refers to a thing, and 'who' if it refers to a person. We can't drop the relative pronoun in this kind
of clause, even if the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause.
 (Clause comes after the subject)

 My boss, who is very nice, lives in Manchester.

 My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars.
 My bicycle, which I've had for more than ten years, is falling apart.
 My mother's house, which I grew up in, is very small.

(Clause comes after the object)

 Yesterday I called our friend Julie, who lives in New York.

 The photographer called to the Queen, who looked annoyed.
 Last week I bought a new computer, which I don't like now.
 I really love the new Chinese restaurant, which we went to last night.

How to Shorten Relative Clauses?

Relative clauses with who, which, that as subject pronoun can be replaced with a participle. This
makes the sentence shorter and easier to understand.

I told you about the woman who lives next door. – I told you about the woman living next door.