Relative clauses provide additional information about a noun by modifying it. They can begin with who, which, whose, that, where, or when to refer to people, objects, possession, places, or time. Relative clauses can be either defining, and necessary for the sentence, or non-defining, providing extra information. They can also modify entire sentences by commenting on the action or information in the main clause.
2. Relative Clauses
• They give more information about a noun
(person, place, object, idea…) in the sentence.
He’s the man that scored the winning goal.
The hotel which is in front of the beach is
quite expensive.
3. • Relative clauses can begin with these words:
who person. The woman who is in front of
you smells of garlic.
which object. The phone which is on the
shelf is already broken.
whose indicates possession. The man
whose wallet was stolen is very angry.
4. • Relative clauses can begin with these words:
that object or person. The man that is in
front of us talks too much. / The door that
doesn’t work will be fixed tomorrow.
where place. The café where we met is
being torn down.
when time. The month when we met was
very rainy.
5. • Defining relative clauses: necessary to the
sentence.
She’s the candidate who won the contest.
• Non-defining relative clauses: give extra
information about the noun.
My friend, who is an architect, stopped by the
class today.
6. Relative clauses as sentence modifiers
• When a relative clause begins with “which”,
we can use it to comment on the whole
sentence.
They didn’t bring any food, which is unusual,
since they always bring snacks.
She called me at midnight, which was rude,
because she knows I work early mornings.
