This document discusses relative clauses and their types. There are two types of relative clauses: defining and non-defining. Defining clauses provide essential information about the noun they modify, while non-defining clauses provide non-essential information and are set off with commas. The document provides examples of defining and non-defining clauses and discusses the relative pronouns used to introduce relative clauses, such as who, whom, whose, which, and that. It also contains exercises for readers to practice identifying defining and non-defining clauses.

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

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Key Words
Clause
Relative
Defining
Non-defining

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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)

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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