IM

RELATIVE CLAUSES
 RELATIVE CLAUSES
▸ They’re the students who had the party.

▸ My history tutor, who was excellent, retired last year.

▸ This is the test which I’m most worried about.

 DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
▸ We use a de ning relative clause to say
which person, thing, or place we are talking
about.
▸ He’s the person who/that told me
about this course.
▸ This is the book that/which I enjoyed
so much.
▸ They’re the couple whose son was in
the news last week.
▸ We can omit who, that, and which when the
verbs in the main clause and the relative
clause have different subjects. But we can’t
omit the relative pronoun when it refers to
the subject of the relative clause
▸ He is the man (who/that) I saw in the
library.
▸ She’s the woman who teaches French.

▸ That’s the college where my sister

went.

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 NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

▸ A non-de ning relative clause gives us ▸ A non-de ning relative clause in the
extra information about something in the middle of a sentence is more common in
main clause. writing.

▸ If we omit this clause, the sentence will
still make sense.
▸ We add a comma before a non-de ning
clause.
▸ This is my friend Barbara, who was
in my maths class last year.
▸ This course, which is a requirement
for psychology students, is only in
the morning.
▸ Notice the difference in meaning
between the sentences below:
▸ Students who registered can now take
the test. (=only some registered)

▸ Students, who registered, can now

take the test. (=everyone registered)

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Source: Scrivener, J. (2018). Personal Best B1+ Intermediate. Richmond: Spain.