D. Vargas y N. Valdelomar

1. z
Relative Clauses
By D. Vargas/ Adapted by N. Valdelomar

2. z
Key Words
Clause
Relative
Defining
Non-defining

3. z
Clauses
• A clause is a part of a sentence.
• A sentence can contain many clauses.
• Each clause has only one main verb.
I love you. One sentence and one clause
I love you, and I will always love you.
I live in London, which is in England.
One
sentence and
two clauses

4. zThere are two types of clauses:
A) Independent Clauses (IC): An independent clause is a group of
words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete
thought. An independent clause is a sentence.
Example: The woman wants to buy the house. (IC)
B) Dependent Clauses (DC): A dependent clause is a group of
words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a
complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often, a
dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.
Example: who called yesterday (DC)

5. z
Relative
Clauses
There are two types of adjectival relative clauses:
Nondefining: Commas are used before and after the
nondefining relative clause because the information is not
essential to the identification of the noun that the clause
modifies.
I left my son at the campus daycare center,
which is free to all full-time students.
My new roommate, who is a trained child
nurse, works here.

6. z
Relative
Clauses
Defining: No commas are needed because the
information is relevant to the identification of the
antecedent.
 Students who have young children are
invited to use the free daycare center.
 ≠ Students are invited to use the free daycare
center.
 All of them? Yes
 Even childless students? Yes
 Even those whose children are older than
18? Yes

7. z
Relative Clauses
 We use the relative pronouns “who,” “whom,” “whose,” “which,” and
“that” and the relative adverbs “where,” “when,” and “why” to introduce
adjectival relative clauses.
 The pronouns “who” and “whom” are for people, “which” for things, and
“that” and “whose” for both.
* I lent some money to Sam, whose house was destroyed by the flood.
* The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents
obey their children.

8. z
 I was interviewed by the speaker whom I met at the party.

9. z
Practice
 Products try to limit the damage they do to the
environment.
 Which are environmentally friendly
Defining or Non-defining?

10. z
Practice
 Products try to limit the damage they do to the environment.
 Which are environmentally friendly
Products which are environmentally friendly try to limit the damage
they do to the environment.

11. z
Practice
People now have different
diets.
Who live in urban areas
Defining or Non-defining?

12. z
Practice
People now have different diets.
Who live in urban areas
People who live in urban areas now have
different diets.

13. z
Analyze
 People are currently starving.
Is this true in general?
Can we make this sentence more specific and factual?

14. z
Analyze
People who live in Venezuela are
currently starving.
People are currently starving.

15. z
Analyze
 Organic food is often grown locally.
 Organic food is usually quite expensive.
Write one sentence with a relative clause.

16. z
Analyze Organic food is often grown
locally.
Organic food is usually quite
expensive.
Organic food, which is usually
quite expensive, is often
grown locally.

17. z

18. z
Information taken from:
1. https://www.thoughtco.com/restrictive-and-nonrestrictive-adjective-clauses-
1689689
2. https://myenglishspot.wordpress.com/2016/11/25/relative-clauses/
3. https://sites.google.com/a/ieszoco.es/ingles/4o-eso/4-eso-
b/entradasintitulo?overridemobile=true