Defining relative clauses provide information to identify a person or thing and can use that, who, which, whom, whose, when, where, or why. That or who is used for people and that or which for things. The relative pronoun can be the subject or object of the verb in the relative clause. In formal English whom is used instead of who as the object. The relative pronoun can be omitted if it is the object of a preposition. Whose indicates possession. When, where, and why are used after time, place, and reason nouns, respectively. Defining relative clauses concisely identify people and things.

1. DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
www.slideshare.net/pietvanderlaan/defrelclauses? ADAPTED

2. Defining Relative Clauses
DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES give info
to help identify the person/thing you are
talking about.
• The man who you met yesterday was my
brother.
• The car which crashed into me belonged
to Paul.

3. Use THAT or WHO when
talking about people.
• He was the man that bought my
house.
• You are the only person here who
knows me.

4. Use THAT or WHICH
when talking about things.
• There was ice cream that Mum
had made herself.
• I will tell you the first thing which I
can remember.

5. THAT, WHO, or WHICH can be
the subject of the verb in a
relative clause.
• The thing that really surprised me
was his attitude.
• The woman who lives next door is
very friendly.
• The car which caused the accident
drove off.

6. THAT, WHO, or WHICH can also
be the object of the verb in the
relative clause.
• The thing that I really liked about it
was its size.
• The woman who you met yesterday
lives next door.
• The car which I wanted to buy was
not for sale.

7. Defining Relative Clauses
In formal
English, WHOM is
used instead of WHO
as the object of the
verb in the relative
clause.
• She was a woman whom
I greatly respected.

8. You can leave out
THAT, WHO, or WHICH when
they are the object of the verb
in the relative clause.
• The woman you met yesterday lives
next door.
• The car I wanted to buy was not for
sale.
• The thing I really liked about it was its
size.

9. WARNING:
You cannot leave out
THAT, WHO, or WHICH when they
are the subject of the verb in the
relative clause.
EXAMPLE: The woman who lives next
door is very friendly.
• WRONG: The woman lives next door is

10. THE relative pronoun in a relative
clause can be the object of a
preposition.
The preposition usually goes at the
end of the clause.
• I wanted to do the job which I’d been
training for.
• The house that we lived in was huge.

11. You can often omit a relative
pronoun that is the object of a
preposition.
• Angela was the only person I could talk to.
• She’s the girl I sang the song for.

12. The preposition always goes in front
of WHOM and in front of WHICH in
formal English.
• These are the people to whom Catherine
was referring.
• He was asking questions to which there
were no answers.

13. You use WHOSE in relative clauses
to indicate who something belongs to
or relates to. You normally use
WHOSE for people, not for things.
• A child whose mother had left him was
crying loudly.
• We have only told the people whose work
is relevant to this project.

14. Defining Relative Clauses
You can use WHEN, WHERE, and
WHY in defining relative clauses after
certain nouns.
• Use WHEN after TIME, or time words
such as DAY, or YEAR.
• Use WHERE after PLACE or place words
such as ROOM or STREET.
• Use WHY after REASON.

15. Examples:
• There had been a time when she hated
all men.
• This is the year when profits should
increase.
• He showed me the place where they
work.
• That was the room where I did my
homework.
• There are several reasons why we
can’t do that.

16. • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/645/01
• www.e-grammar.org/relative-clauses/
• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-
clauses-exercise-1.html
• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-
clauses-exercise-2.html
• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-
clauses-exercise-3.html
• www.perfect-english-grammar.com/relative-
clauses-exercise-4.html
• www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-
clauses/exercises?07

17. Questions?
For more slide presentations visit: