UNIT 5 RELATIVE CLAUSES

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

The piece of sentence that follows the relative pronoun gives essential information
about the antecedent.

He’s the man who / that taught me to drive.

A speedometer is a thing which / that tells you how fast you’re doing.
I remember the time when / that he arrived.
That’s the place where I went for my driving lessons.
The children whose books you are using are my pupils.

Characteristics

1. We can omit the relative pronouns WHO / WHICH / WHEN / WHERE / THAT
when they are followed by a subject
The man (who / that) I visited yesterday is a professor.
The house (which / that) we bought is very comfortable.
2002 was the year (when / that) the film was released.
This was the place (where) we first met.

2. We mustn’t omit the relative pronouns WHO / WHICH / THAT when it is

followed by a verb
The man who / that visited us yesterday is a professor.
The house which / that was so old was rebuilt.

► We never omit WHOSE

This is the girl whose dream of fame came true.

3. Prepositions
In formal contexts, we use the structures prep. + whom / prep. + which
That’s the film director with whom she did most of her movies.
What is the play about which you are speaking?

In informal contexts, the preposition is placed at the end of the sentence.

That’s the film director (who / that) she did most of her movies with.
What is the play (which / that) you are speaking about?
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

The piece of sentence that follows the relative pronoun is not essential to understand
the meaning of the whole sentence.

The King of Spain, who lives in Madrid, is called Juan Carlos.

My house, which is quite comfortable, needs redecorating.
In two months, when they get the money, they’ll start shooting the film.
The White House, where all American presidents live, is in Washington.
That man, whose first lesson was a disaster, is now an excellent driver.

Characteristics

1. The relative clause is written between commas.

2. THAT mustn’t be used as a relative.
3. The relative pronoun mustn’t be omitted.
This book, which I bought last week, is not as interesting as I thought.