Relative Clauses

Hannah Baxter & Kelsie Meyer

Warm-Up
With a partner, come up with sentences describing Ryan and
Sharpay (actions, descriptions, etc.)
Ryan and Sharpay are warming up.
Ryan is wearing a blue shirt.
Sharpay is wearing a pink robe.

Warm-Up
Ryan and Sharpay are warming up.
Ryan is wearing a blue shirt.
Sharpay is wearing a pink robe.

Ryan who is wearing a blue shirt and Sharpay who

is wearing a pink robe are warming up.

What is a relative clause?

Add information to the head
nouns of NPs
Same function as adjectives BUT
relative clauses appear after head
nouns--rather than before.
A difficult and perplexing problem
A problem [that is difficult and perplexing]

Building a Relative Claws

Which relative
do I Inc.
Sullypronoun
works at Monsters
use?!?

Sully is a monster.

Sully [Sully works at Monsters Inc] is a monster.

Sully [Sully works at Monsters Inc] is a monster.
Sully [who works at Monsters Inc] is a monster.

Inanimate noun phrases

Human noun phrases

Which
That

That
Who

Which/That
Who/That

Ready to Practice?
Kuzco is about to go over a huge waterfall.
Kuzco is strapped to a tree.

Kronk pulled the wrong

lever.
Kronk is high-fiving Yzma.

The old man threw off Kuzcos groove.

The old man is sorry.

TABOO!

Feedback?!

Common ELL Errors

Wrong Relative Pronoun

Misplacement of Relative
Pronoun
Misplacement of Relative
Clauses

What worked well? What didnt?

What do you think about the activities?

How could you modify these activities?

What do you think would be most difficult for ELLs on this topic?

Suggestions? Comments?

Just a bit more...than the bare necessities

Indirect object relative clauses (IO)

Can be formed in two ways

Stranded or moved preposition

Limited to the two prepositions: to/for

The girl [who/that we gave the candy to] is Freds

sister
The girl [to whom we gave the candy] is Freds sister

Object of a Preposition Relative Clauses (OP)

Same pattern options of IO relatives, however

OP relatives can include all prepositions

The mattress [which/that he slept on] had several

broken springs.

Possessive Relative Clauses (POS)

Utilizes whose or it utilizes which when preceded by
of
Last week I met a girl [whose brother works in your law
firm].
The reports [the size of which the government prescribes]
are boring.