This document discusses relative clauses and relative pronouns. It provides examples of defining and non-defining relative clauses using who, whom, whose, which, that and where. Defining relative clauses identify a specific person or thing, while non-defining clauses provide extra information. Relative pronouns introduce the relative clause and the correct one to use depends on whether the antecedent is a person, animal or thing, and if it is the subject or object of the relative clause.

1. RELATIVE CLAUSES
We can use relative clauses to join two sentences, or to give
more information about something.

2. Relative Pronouns
PEOPLE
(PESSOAS)
ANIMALS/THINGS
(ANIMAIS/COISAS)
Subject (Sujeito) Who (=That) Which (=That)
Object(
Complemento)
Whom (=That) Which (=That)
Possessive
(Possessivo)
Whose Whose
(sometimes)
Adverb (place)-> where (=in which)
We use relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses, which tell us more
about people ,animals and things. Whom is very formal and mainly used in written
English. That is very used instead of who, whom and which.

3. A.Defining relative clauses
Subject (people)
• This is the man. He lives in Boston.
subject verb
• This is the man who(/that lives in Boston.
• This is the man who/that he lives in Boston.

4. A.Defining relative clauses
Subject (things)
• The invitation card was sent by post. It arrived
yesterday. Subj. verb
• The invitation card which/that arrived
yesterday was sent by post.

5. A.Defining relative clauses
Object (people)
• That’s the girl. I saw her at the party.
subj. verb
• That’s the girl (whom/that) I saw at the party.
subj. verb
Note: we can leave out the relative pronoun.

6. A.Defining relative clauses
Object (animals+things)
• That’s the DVD.I watched it last night.
subj. verb
• That’s the DVD (which/that) I watched last
night. subj. verb

7. A.Defining relative clauses
Posssession (people+animals+things)
• That’s the student. His homework was the
best.
• That’s the student whose homework was the
best.

8. A.Defining relative clauses
Place
• I live in the city. I study there.
• I live in the city where I study.
OR
• I live in the city in which I study.

9. Complete with the right relative pronoun.
1.Bob is the boy ____is standing.
2.This is the book ____was expensive.
3.She is the girl ____I met yesterday.
5.That’s the woman____ flat is very big.
6.Here’s the photo of a place ____we spent our
holidays.

10. Defining and Non-defining
A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about:
e.g. I like the person who lives next door.
(If I don’t say ‘who lives next door’, then we don’t know which person I
mean.)
A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something.
We don’t need this information to understand the sentence.
e.g. I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.
(Everybody knows where London is, ‘which has some fantastic parks’ is
extra information.)

11. DEFINING NON-DEFINING
That often replaces who,
whom or which;
We can omit the relative
pronoun (object);
No commas.
We use defining relative
clauses mostly in oral English.
We can’t use that;
We can’t omit the relative
pronoun (object);
extra information is between
commas.
We use non-defining relative
clauses mostly in written
English.

12. Join the sentences: (defining relative clauses)
1.These are the glasses. I’ve lost them.
2.I know a girl. Her father is a good carpenter.
3.He works for a company. It makes computers.
4.I know a lot of people.They went to the
Olympic Games.

13. Join the sentences: (defining and non-defining relative clauses)
1.She saw the man.He bought her bike.
2.The gentleman must be rich.His car is an Aston
Martin.
3.Their house was completely ruined.It could be
seen from distance.
4.Mr Murphey has just returned from Paris.He is a
well-known politician.

14. Study and have fun with:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/
verb-patterns/relative-clauses