Relative Clauses
Proficiency Course in English/ Faculty of Law
Level 4
2020/2021
DELT
• We use a relative clause to give extra information about the
nouns in the main clause, without starting another sentence.
• It is written immediately after the noun it relates to
• It starts with a relative pronoun
The relative pronouns:
WHO /THAT Subject or object pronoun for
Relative
PEOPLE
WHICH /THAT Subject or object pronoun for
Clauses WHERE
ANIMALS OR THINGS
Refers to a PLACE
WHEN Refers to a TIME expression
WHOSE POSSESSION for people, animals
and things
Relative Pronouns
Summary
Person Thing/ animal Place Time Reason
Subject who/that which/that
Object who/whom/ which/that where when why
that
Possessive whose whose
• The RC gives essential information about a person/
thing in the main clause
• It adds more information to the main clause
E.g.
This is the book I wanted to read it
How to - Both sentences talk about the book
identify the - We can join these by replacing ‘the book’ and ‘it’
with ‘which’ or ‘that’
relative
clause This is the book which/ that I wanted to read
• She is the girl. She did not come to class
yesterday
She is the girl who/ that did not come to class
yesterday
More • Those are the students. They passed the exam.
examples exam
Those are the students who passed the
These sentences talk about a person/ people
They can be combined using ‘who/ that’
• Those are the papers.
Their headlines (the headlines of those papers)
are wrong
Possessives: Those are the papers whose headlines are wrong
using Whose • Those are the politicians.
Their (the policies of those politicians) policies are
awful.
Those are the politicians whose policies are awful
Exercises: Choose the correct RP
1. She’s the girl __whose_____ mother lives next door.
2. This is the ring _____that__ Lucy gave me for our anniversary.
3. Last Tuesday was ___when_______ I heard the news.
4. That’s the hospital ____where_____ I was born.
5. Sangakkara is the player ____who_____ has scored many wickets this year.
6. The giraffe is the animal ____ which/that_____ has the longest neck of any species.
7. Spices _____that/which___ come from the Sri Lanka are of top quality.
8. Last holidays, we went to Unawatuna____where/ whose____ the beaches are
beautiful.
9. Tharindu is a dubbing artist ____who_____ does voice-overs for TV commercials.
10. That is the boy _____whose___ surname is the same as mine.
When the replaced nouns appears in the object position of the
relative clause, we can omit the relative pronoun
E.g.
1. The car broke down
I bought the car last year (car is the object, can be omitted)
- The car I bought last year broke down
Omitting 2. The car broke down on Templer’s Road
the relative
It caused a lot of traffic (car is the subject, cannot be omitted)
- The car that broke down on Templer’s Road caused a lot of
pronoun
traffic
Omitting the RP
Noun, +relative +verb + rest +verb + rest of
subject of pronoun of relative main clause
the main clause
clause
The woman that spoke at the was very
meeting knowledgeable.
The woman (that) the man was living in New
loved York.
JOIN THE SENTENCES USING A RELATIVE CLAUSE.
OMIT THE RELATIVE PRONOUN IF POSSIBLE.
1. I met a girl . She knew my brother. I met a girl who knew my brother/ A girl who I met knew my brother
2. We walked down the street. A man was shot there. We walked down the street where a man was shot
3. I have a dog. It can walk on two legs. I have a dog that/ which (who) can walk on two leg
4. That’s the boy. His mother works in the post office. That is the boy whose mother works in the PO
5. The shop is closed now. I used to work there. The shop where I used to work is closed now.
6. Kumari is the girl. I met her yesterday. Kumari is the girl (who/whom) I met yesterday / The girl who I met
yesterday is Kumari.
7. People are very lucky. They can play a musical instrument. People who can play a musical instrument are
very lucky
8. I met somebody. His mother is a famous actress. I met somebody whose mother is a famous actress
Exercises
Murphy, R. (2019). English Grammar in use (5th
ed.). NY: CUP
Units 92 to 94
pp.184-189
Resources
EF Education first. (2020). Relative clauses. Retrieved from [Link]
-resources/english-grammar/relative-clauses/
Kulaty, P. (n.d.). English grammar: Relative clauses [PDF]. Retrieved from [Link] -
[Link]/download/[Link]
[Link]. (n.d.). Reletive clauses [PDF]. Retrieved from
[Link]