Intervenant

Laurence Petoud
Executive Assistant
Formatrice en Entreprise
ECDL Expert
laurence.petoud@gmail.com

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n
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This support has been developed as part of my
revisions for exams First Certificate in English.

Relative clauses

A relative clause is a phrase that adds information to a sentence. All relative clauses describe

Here are some examples of sentences without relative clauses:

Yesterday I met a man. He works in the circus.
I bought a cell phone. It has internet access.
Theres the restaurant. I ate at that restaurant last night.
These sentences are correct, but they are very short and simple (and rather
boring).
Relative clauses help us link our sentences together and make them richer in
detail:
Yesterday I met a man who works in the circus.
I bought a cell phone that has internet access.
Theres the restaurant where I ate last night.
WORDS TO BEGIN RELATIVE CLAUSES

who (to describe people subject)

The woman who works in the bank is my neighbour.
whom (to describe people object)
My cousins, one of whom is a doctor, live in England.
whose (to describe possession)
The man whose car was stolen went to the police station.
that (to describe things defining relative clauses)
Im selling the computer that I bought in the U.S.
which (to describe things non-defining relative clauses)
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Im selling this computer, which I bought three years ago, for $500.
when (to describe times)
My favorite season is fall, when all the leaves change color.
where (to describe places)
I visited the neighborhood where I grew up.
why (to give a reason)
Do you know the reason why the stores are closed today?
whereby (by which means) rather formal
The government has created an online system whereby citizens can give their
feedback.
Sometimes we use that in place of who. It is more technically correct to use who,
but in informal spoken English you might hear that instead.
The woman who works in the bank is my neighbour.
The woman that works in the bank is my neighbour.
I have a friend who owns a sailboat.
I have a friend that owns a sailboat.
Also, we often use who even when whom would technically be more correct:
Theres the man whom I met at the party.
Theres the man who I met at the party.

DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

Relative clauses can be defining or non-defining. What exactly does this mean?
A defining relative clause includes information that is essential to the sentence. It
specifies which one or what type of person or thing we are talking about. If we
removed it, the sentence would make no sense or the meaning would change:

I hate dogs that bark all the time.

What type of dogs? Only dogs that bark all the time.
I hate dogs.
= ALL dogs
The person who scores the most points will win a prize.
Which person? The one with the most points.
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 The person will win a prize.

Which person? Were missing some information!
Thats the house where my grandparents used to live.
Thats the house.
This sentence doesnt make sense by itself.
A non-defining clause adds extra information often details that are secondary
to the main message. If you remove a non-defining clause from a sentence, the
basic message is still the same.
My brother, who lives in California, is an engineer.
My brother is an engineer.
We went to the closest beach, which was very crowded.
We went to the closest beach.
That caf, where you can get free refills, is my favorite place to hang out.
That caf is my favorite place to hang out.
As you can see from the examples, non-defining relative clauses are often
enclosed
by commas. Defining relative clauses are never enclosed by commas:
Bobs Furniture Store, where we bought our sofa, is going out of business.
The store where we bought our sofa is going out of business.
In the first sentence we say the name of the store specifically so this already
tells us which store we are talking about. Where we bought our sofa is
therefore extra information, not essential information.
In the second sentence, we dont name the store; we simply describe it as The
store where we bought our sofa. This means that where we bought our sofa is
essential information answering the question of which store we are talking about
so we do not enclose it in commas.

OMITTING WHO AND THAT

In some defining relative clauses, we can actually omit the pronouns who and
that:
Theres the man who I met at the party.
= Theres the man I met at the party.
Heres the information that you requested.
= Heres the information you requested.
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When can we do this? Only when the word being described by the relative clause
is the receiver of the action in the relative clause. These examples will make it
clearer:
Theres the man (who) I met at the party.
I met the man
Theres the man who helped me.
the man helped
This is the table (that) we built.
we built the table
This is the table that cost $1000.
the table cost
PREPOSITIONS IN RELATIVE CLAUSES
When talking about things belonging to other things, we often use of which
instead of whose:
That book, the end of which was very disappointing, was slammed by critics.
There were over 200 years of slavery, the effects of which are still being felt
today.
We can also use of which after quantity words like all, both, each, many, most,
neither, none, part, some, a number, and superlatives:
She doesn't spend much on her clothes, most of which are second-hand.
I bought two toys, both of which are for my nephews.
They made many attempts, none of which were successful.
With people, we can use of whom:
My neighbors, all of whom have lived here for years, are very friendly.
The three kids, the oldest of whom was only 8, were home alone.
In more formal written English, we try to avoid ending sentences with
prepositions.
We can use a preposition + which instead:
That's the church we were married in.
That's the church in which we were married.
Art is a topic I know nothing about.
Art is a topic about which I know nothing.
Please work on the project you were assigned to.
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 Please work on the project to which you were assigned.

The exception is when the verb in the relative clause is a phrasal verb (take on,
come across, look after, etc.) - then we cannot move the preposition before the
main
verb. In a more formal context, we can replace the phrasal verb with a single
verb of equivalent meaning:
He did not believe the story that I'd made up.
He did not believe the story up which I'd made.
He did not believe the story that Id invented.

Summary
Relative clauses add information to a sentence by providing additional detail
about a person, place, or thing.
They start with the words who, whom, whose, that, which, when, where, why,
and whereby.
A defining relative clause answers the question "Which one?" or "What type" and
contains information that is essential to the sentence.
A non-defining relative clause adds extra information (not essential).
Nondefining relative clauses are enclosed in commas.
When the person/thing being described is the receiver of the action in the
relative clause, we can often omit the pronoun:
o There's the man I met at the party.
o Here's the information you requested.
We can use of which when talking about things belonging to other things, and
after quantity words and superlatives.
In formal written English, we try to avoid ending sentences with prepositions,
so we can use a preposition + which. Ex) That's the church in which we were
married.
We cannot do this with phrasal verbs, so we can replace the phrasal verb with
a single verb of equivalent meaning.

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