RELATIVE CLAUSES

NON-DEFINING (the information is not necessary)

AND DEFINING
DEFINING (sub. adj. especificativa)
- La información es necesaria.
- No van entre comas.
- Sí pueden utilizar el THAT.

The woman who is sitting on that chair is Ana Sánchez.

This is the town where I live.
The dog which/that is running on the beach is my pet.
This is the cat that I have adopted.

My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every day.

This is the grandfather that goes swimming every day.
I know an 87-aged grandfather who goes swimming every day.

● Los pronombres relativos sustituyen un elemento de la oración principal.

Ayer fui a la fiesta que tan famosa ha sido.
I was at the party yesterday, when I had a cold.
● The woman who is sitting on that chair is Ana Sánchez
● This is the cat (that) I have adopted.
● This is the cat which is big
○ Sujeto de la oración subordinada no sea el
pronombre relativo, este se puede omitir.
■ This is the cat (that)I have adopted.
■ This is the cat I have adopted.
■ This is the woman (that) I have been talking to
■ This is the woman that/who teach English
■ This is the phone (that) I broke.
■ This is the car (that) I bought yesterday.
■ The woman (who/that) I said “hello” to was Ana Sánchez.
● WHOSE (cuyo/cuya).
The woman whose name is Ana Sánchez teaches English.
NON-DEFINING (sub. adj. explicativa)
That woman, who is sitting on the chair, is Ana Sánchez.
This cat, which is eating pizza on the street, is lost.
This is the town where I live >>> My town, where I live, is Olvera.
This is my town, where I live.
The dog which is running on the beach is my pet.
My dog, which is my pet, is running on the beach.
My dad, whose dog is running on the beach, is walking around.

This is the cat that I have adopted.

My cat, which has been adopted, is this one.

Relative clauses give us information about the person or thing mentioned.

❏ Non-defining relative clauses give us extra information about someone or

something.
My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every day.
This house, which was built in 1883, has just been opened to the public.
This award was given to Sara, whose short story impressed the judges.

❏ We always use a relative pronoun or adverb to start a non-defining relative

clause: who, which, whose, when or where (but not that).
❏ We also use commas to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence.
❏ The relative pronoun cannot be omitted.

WHO
To talk about a person

Non-defining and WHO:

My neighbor Juan, who lives next to me, has a luxurious car.

WHICH
To talk about things

Non-defining and WHICH:

I don’t like this box, which is made of wooden.

WHOSE (cuyo/a)
to refer to the person or thing that something belongs to.
Miguel Ángel, whose car is from a lamborghini company, has come to our
town.

WHERE
To talk about places.
My house, where I live, is located in Pruna.
We can use WHICH with a preposition to talk about places and times.
City Park, which we used to go to, has been closed down.
City Park, where we used to go, has been closed down.

December, which Christmas is celebrated in, is a summer month for the

southern hemisphere.
December, when Christmas is celebrated, is a summer month for the southern
hemisphere.

WHEN
To talk about time.