Relative clauses provide extra information about nouns by functioning like adjectives. They can be either defining clauses that identify the noun or non-defining clauses that provide unnecessary but interesting information. Relative clauses are introduced by relative pronouns like who, which, that, whose or no pronoun. Defining clauses use a definite relative pronoun and are essential to the meaning, while non-defining clauses use commas and are not essential to the meaning. Relative clauses can refer to people using who/whom or things using which and whose is used to talk about something belonging to a person or thing. When, where and why can also be used in some relative clauses.

1. Relative clauses
Relative clauses provide extra
information about nouns they modify.
They have the function of adjectives.
The information can either define
something (defining clause), or
provide unnecessary, but interesting,
added information (non-defining
clause).
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2. Relative clauses can be introduced by:
• a relative pronoun: who (whom),
which, that, whose
• no relative pronoun, Ø.
• where, why and when instead of a
relative pronoun
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3. Defining ,identifying,
definite or restrictive clauses
These clauses have a
definite relative pronoun as a
subordinating word.
A definite relative pronoun has an antecedent.
E.g.:We heard the things that they said. 3

4. They have three main characteristics:
• In speech the intonation is the same
as the noun they qualify.
• In spelling they are not separated by
commas.
• In meaning they are essential to the
meaning of the clause.
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5. You never put a comma or a dash in front of a defining
relative clause.
¡
E.g.:
The woman who owns this cabin will come back in the autumn.
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6. Non-defining ,indefinite or
non-restrictive clauses
• A non-defining relative clause usually has a
comma in front of it and a comma after it,
unless it is at the end of a sentence, in
which case you just put a full stop. Dashes
are sometimes used instead of commas.
e.g:
• Sir Denis, who is 78, has let it be known
that much of his collection is to be left
to the nation.
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7. They have three main characteristics:
• In speech the intonation is different
from the noun they qualify.
• In spelling they are separated by
commas.
• In meaning they are not essential to
the meaning of the clause.
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8. Relative clauses referring to people
When a non-defining clause relates to a person or
group of people, you use ‘who’ as the subject of the
clause, or ‘who’ or ‘whom’ as the object of the
clause.
Heath Robinson, who died in 1944, was a graphic
artist and cartoonist.
I was in the same group as Janice, who I like a lot.
She was engaged to a sailor, whom she had met at
Dartmouth.
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9. Relative clauses referring to things
When a non-defining clause relates to a thing or a group of
things, you use ‘which’ as the subject or object.
I am teaching at the Selly Oak Centre, which is just over the
road.
He was a man of considerable inherited wealth, which he
ultimately spent on his experiments.
WARNING
You cannot use ‘that’ to begin a non-defining relative clause.
For example, you cannot say ‘She sold her car, that she had
bought the year before’. You must say ‘She sold her car,
which she had bought the year before’.
Non-defining clauses cannot be used without a relative
pronoun. For example, you cannot say
‘She sold her car, she had bought the year before’.
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10. • ‘whose’ in relative clauses
• When you want to talk about something
belonging or relating to a person, thing, or
group, you use a defining or non-defining
relative clause beginning with ‘whose’ and a
noun.
• ...workers whose bargaining power is weak.
• According to Cook, whose book is published
on Thursday, most disasters are avoidable.
.
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11. Relative clauses with ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘why’
‘When’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ can be used in defining relative
clauses after certain nouns. ‘When’ is used after ‘time’
and other time words, ‘where’ is used after ‘place’ or
place words, and ‘why’ is used after ‘reason’.
This is one of those occasions when I regret not being
able to drive.
That was the room where I did my homework.
There are several reasons why we can’t do that.
‘When’ and ‘where’ can be used in non-defining relative
clauses after expressions of time and place.
This happened in 1957, when I was still a baby.
She has just come back from a holiday in Crete, where
Alex and I went last year.
They are used after indefinite pronouns such as ‘someone’,
‘anyone’, and ‘everything’.
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12. Relative clauses can sometimes be reduced to non-
finite clauses.
For example, instead of saying ‘Give it to the man
who is wearing the bowler hat’, you can say ‘Give it
to the man wearing the bowler hat’. Similarly,
instead of saying ‘The bride, who was smiling
happily, chatted to the guests’, you can say ‘The
bride, smiling happily, chatted to the guests’.
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13. • Often, in a defining relative clause, the
relative pronoun is omitted and there is a
change of word order in the sentence: the
antecedent comes first.
The pages she was looking at were these.
The boy you helped was my son.
• Sometimes it is replaced by an indefinite
pronoun.
E.g.:
I’d be wary of anything Matt Davis is
involved with
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14. Credits
Designed by
Prof.Stella Maris Berdaxagar
Quemú Quemú
La Pampa,Argentina
April,2005. 14