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Understanding Relative Clauses in ESL

Relative clauses enhance sentences by providing additional information about nouns without starting new sentences. They can be essential or nonessential, often starting with relative pronouns, and can sometimes be omitted for brevity. These clauses help create complex sentences and have been used by famous writers like Shakespeare to add depth to their works.

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5 views5 pages

Understanding Relative Clauses in ESL

Relative clauses enhance sentences by providing additional information about nouns without starting new sentences. They can be essential or nonessential, often starting with relative pronouns, and can sometimes be omitted for brevity. These clauses help create complex sentences and have been used by famous writers like Shakespeare to add depth to their works.

Uploaded by

pv.paolina.parra
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

What's Left to Know

About Relative Clauses


They spice up sentences
Relative clauses are like sentence enhancers! They
provide additional information about a noun
without starting a new sentence.
For example, The cake that she baked was delicious
tells you more about the cake.

They can be essential or extra


Some relative clauses are defining meaning they
provide essential information about the noun.
Others are nondefining and just add extra details.
For example, The man who won the lottery is my
neighbor is essential, while My neighbor, who won
the lottery, is moving to Hawaii is nonessential.

They use Wh- words (mostly)


Relative clauses often start with relative pronouns.
These words connect the clause to the noun
it describes.
Omissions happen
In some cases, you can omit the relative pronoun
altogether!
The book that I read was amazing can be
shortened to The book I read was amazing.

They have hidden rules


While English mostly uses who for people and
which for things, languages like French or Spanish
often have gendered relative pronouns, adding a
layer of complexity.

Nested clauses
Relative clauses can be embedded within each
other.
For example, The cake that the baker who I met
yesterday made was delicious contains a clause
within a clause!

Flexible placement
Relative clauses can appear in different positions
within a sentence, usually following the noun they
describe, but sometimes they can lead to creative
sentence structures.
They’re not always necessary
In informal speech, people often drop the relative
pronoun or clause entirely, especially when the
meaning is clear without it.
For example, The movie [that] I watched last
night was great.

They help create complex sentences


Using relative clauses can turn simple sentences
into more complex and nuanced ones, which is
key in both written and spoken language for
expressing detailed ideas.

Shakespeare loved them


Famous writers like Shakespeare used relative
clauses to add depth to characters and stories.
For example, in The Tempest, Shakespeare wrote,
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, which
is a poetic relative clause!
References:

Walden University. (n.d.). Relative, restrictive, and nonrestrictive clauses. Retrieved


from [Link]

Sato, K. (2016). The personal use of relative which in Shakespearean English: The
relevance of social and emotional factors. Anglia - Zeitschrift Für Englische Philologie,
134(2).Retrieved from [Link]

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