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Defining relative clauses give detailed information defining a general term or expression.
Ex: Tom is in a room with five girls One girl is talking to Tom and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl.
In
The
boy (who/whom) we met yesterday is very nice. (english grammar online, 2010)
Relative
clauses with who, which, that as subject pronoun can be replaced with a participle.
Ex:
I told you about the woman who lives next door. (english grammar online, 2010)
clause is a part of a sentence. A relative clause tells us which person or thing the speaker means. Examples:
People
who live in London (who live in London tell us what kind of people). (Smalzer r. M., 1989-2000)
We
use Who in a relative clause when we are talking about people (not thing). We use Who instead of he/she/they:
The
Example.
doctor.
(Smalzer r. M., 1989-2000)
When we are talking about things, we use that or which (not who) in relative clause.
Examples: Where
is the cheese? - It was in the refrigerator is the cheese (that, which ) was in the refrigerator? (Smalzer r. M., 1989-2000, p. 178)
where
cannot say The woman lives next door is doctor or Where the cheese is was in the refrigerator?
(Reimes, How to English Works, 1997)
saw some people their car had broken down saw some people whose car had broken down. (Language Dynamics, 2010)
We
window is a woman whose husband is dead. (Her husband is dead) met someone whose brother I went to school with. (I went to school with his/her brother)
met a man whose sister knows you. (His sister knows you) (Language Dynamics, 2010)
hotel we stayed there wasnt very clean. The hotel where we stayed wasnt very clean. (English as 2nd Language, 2012)
Ex.
We say: the day/ the year/ the time, etc. (Something happens or that something happens)
Ex: Do
you still remember the day (that) we first met? The last time ( that) I saw her, she looked fine. (English as 2nd Language, 2012)
First type:
Relative
clause, tells us which person or thing (or what kind of person or thing) the speaker mean: the woman who lives next door tell us which woman.
Second type:
Relative
clause, do not tell us which person or thing the speaker mean. We already know which thing or person is meant: my brother Jim, Brads new job, and that Grand Hotel. (Reimes, How to English Works, 1997, p. 184)
Use relative clauses to provide extra information. This information can either define something, or provide unnecessary, but interesting, added information.
Relative clauses can be introduced by: Examples: No relative pronoun: Where, why and when instead of a relative pronoun A relative pronoun: who (whom), which, that, whose
Add
to relatives clauses we need to consider the following when deciding which relative pronoun to use: Examples: Does it refers to a person or an object? Is the subject or object or possessive of a relative clause?