I.

BICHIOU * INSAT * 2020-2021

POWER

I. BICHIOU * INSAT * 2020-2021

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RELATIVE CLAUSES

• Identifying relative clauses identify who or what we are talking about.

• Non-identifying relative clauses give us additional information about the topic.

 In identifying relative clauses we use the relative pronouns who/whom/whose for people, which for
things and that for people or things.

1 The man whose house you bought last year is moving again next month.
2 Where are the presents which/that I wrapped last night?

 Identifying relative clauses go immediately after the thing they identify.

 We often omit the relative pronoun when it identifies the object of the verb in the relative clause.
1 I haven’t seen the people who
who we spoke to for ages.

object we spoke to the people

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 In identifying relative clauses we often omit the relative pronoun + be.

 This often occurs with continuous tenses, passive forms, prepositional phrases and adjectives. We
sometimes call these reduced relative clauses.

whichwere
1 What happened to the DVDS which were sold yesterday?
that is going to be on my profile.
2 I’m just choosing the photo that

 Prepositions usually stay with the verb/adjective/noun they depend on in less formal contexts.

Informal: Who were you speaking to?

Formal: To whom were you speaking?
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 We also use relative adverbs when and where in identifying relative clauses.

1 This is the theatre where I first saw them act in front of a large audience.

 We often omit when after some time words (e.g. day, month) and we often omit where after somewhere,
anywhere, everywhere, nowhere and place.

1 I think it’s not until next month (when/that) I’m going back to the doctor’s.
2 Shall we find somewhere (where/that) we can sit quietly?
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 Non-identifying relative clauses add information to a noun or previous clause.

1 The economy is starting to pick up again, which is great news for everyone.
2 The sun, which we depend on in so many ways for life, can also be a killer.
3 Ancient civilizations, whose solar observations were incredibly accurate,
have left us many important scientific and artistic artifacts.

 Use a comma to separate non-identifying relative clauses from the thing they add
information to.
 We do not use that in non-identifying relative clauses, only who, whose or which.

1 They were built before modern techniques were available, which that is
amazing to think of these days.
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Look at the underlined words. Which ones can be deleted?

A: Who’s the author of the book (1) that you’re reading at the moment?
B: Which book? I’m reading two at the same time! The (2) one which was on my desk
this morning, or the (3) one that I was talking about last night?
A: I don’t know. It was about a guy (4) whose opinion of homeless people completely
changed (5) when he lost his job and became homeless himself.
B: Ah, yes … um, somebody Brown I think. I’ll look tonight. Why do you want to know?
A: It’s Jane’s birthday on Monday, (6) which I mustn’t forget like I did last year! I
thought she’d like a copy. It’s quite an old book, isn’t it?
B: Well, it was published quite a while ago, but there’s a (7) place where they’ll order
you any book within 24 hours (8) which is on the same street as the chemist’s.
A: I know the one. It’s (9) where I always used to go before online shopping!
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THANKS