This document provides an overview of relative clauses and how to use pronouns like who, which, that, where, whose, when and why in relative clauses. It discusses when these pronouns are used as the subject or object of a relative clause and how prepositions are used before whom and which. It also covers extra information clauses, -ing and -ed clauses, and the use of which versus what.

2. “ The woman who lives next the door is a
doctor “ relative clause
• A clause is part of sentence
• A relative clause tell us which person or thing (or
what kind of person or thing ) the speaker means
The woman who live next the door is ..
( “ who lives next the door “ tell us which woman )

3. • We use relative pronouns:
– who, that – for people
– which, that – for objects
– where – for places
– whose – to talk about possession
– when, that – for a time
– why, that – for a reason
– whom – for object pronouns (people)

4. • That is more formal than which, but
sometimes you have to use which
• What = ‘ the thing (s)that’. Compare what and
that , look at these example :
- What happened was my fault. ( = the thing
that happened )
- Everything that happened was my fault ( not
everything what happened )

5. Remember than in relative clauses we use
who/that/which, not he/she/they/it.
“ I’ve never spoken to the woman who lives next
to the door “. ( not the woman she live )

6. • You must use who/that/which when it is
subject of the relative clause, So you can’t say
The woman lives next the door is a doctor
Look at these example:
The woman wholives next the door is a
doctor.
The woman lives next the door.
who (= the woman) is the subject

7. • Sometimes who/that/which is the object of
the verb, for example :
The girl who I wanted to see was away on holiday.
I wanted to see the woman
who (= the girl) is the object
“ I “ is the subject

8. • When who/that/which is the object, you leave
it out, so you can say :
The girl I wanted to see was away. or
The girl who I wanted to see was away.
Is there anything I can do ? or
Is there anything that I can do ?
Note that we say :
The dress Liz bought (The dress Liz bought it )

9. • Note the position of preposition (in/to/for.etc) in
relative clause :
Tom is talking to a woman-do you know ?
Do you know the woman (who/that) Tom is talking to
I slept in a sofa – it wasn’t comfortable
The sofa ( that/which) I slept in wasn’t very comfortable
Are these the books you were looking for ?
Or Are these the books that / which you were looking for ?

10. • Note that we say :
The books you were looking for them
• You can’t say what in sentence like these :
Everything that he said was true
( not Everything what he said was true )
• What = ‘ the thing (s) that ‘ :
Did you hear what they said ( = the thing that they said )

11. Whose/Whom/Where
• Whose
– We use “Whose” mostly for people
• I met a man who knows you
• Whom
– we can use whom instead of who when it is object of
the verb in the relative clause
• The woman whom I wanted to see was away
NB
– We do not often use whom in spoken English

12. • Where
– You can use where in a relative clause to talk
about place
• The restaurant where we had dinner was near the
airport
• We can say the day/the year/the time etc. to
show that something happens.
– Last time (that) I saw her, she looked fine.

13. Extra Information Clauses
Type 1
The woman who lives next
door is a doctor
 In these example, the relative
clause tells you which person
the speaker means,
 We do not use commas (,)
Type 2
Colin told me about his new
job, which he’s enjoying .
 the relative clauses in these
sentence give us extra
information
 We use commas (,)

14. In both types of relative clause we can use
who/which/whose/where
• Barbara works for a
company which/that
makes furniture,
John, who (not that)
speaks French, works as
a tourist guide.
– You cannot use that in
this type of sentence

15. RelativeClauses5
Prepositions + whom/which
All of/Most of + whom/which
Which

16. Prepositions + whom/which
Use a
preposition
before :
Whom
(for people)
Which
(for thing)

17. Prepositions + whom/which
Use a preposition
before :
Whom
(for people)
to whom
with whom
for whom
Mr. Lee, to whom I spoke at the meeting
, is very interested in our proposal.
Which
(for thing)
in which
about which
without which
Fortunately we had a map, without
which would have got lost.

18. Prepositions + whom/which
In INFORMAL English :
We KEEP the PREPOSITION AFTER the VERB.
WHEN we DO THIS, we normally USE ‘WHO’ (not
whom) for PEOPLE.
e.g. :
1. This is my friend from Canada, who I was telling
you about.
2. Yesterday we visited the City Museum, which I’d
never been to before.

19. All of/Most of, etc. + whom/which
First case :
Mary has 3 brothers. All of them are married.
Mary has 3 brothers, all of whom are married.
Second case :
They asked me a lot of questions. I couldn’t answer most
of them.
They asked me a lot questions, most of which I couldn’t
answer.

20. All of/Most of, etc. + whom/which
All of/ most of
whom/which
I have many shoes, most
of which are red.
None of/ neither of/
any of/ either of
Martin tried on three
jacket, none of which
fitted him.
Some of/ many of/
much of/ (a) few of
Sue has a lot of friends,
many of them she was at
school with.
Both of/ half of/ each
of/ one of/ two of
They’ve got three cars,
two of which they rarely
use.
In the same way, you can say :

21. All of/ Most of, etc. + whom/which
The cause of which The building was
destroyed in a fire,
the cause of which
was never
established.
The name of We stayed at
beautiful hotel, the
name of which I
can’t remember
now.
You can also say :

22. Which (not what)
Use which in sentences like this :
Joe got the job. This surprised everybody.
Joe got the job, which surprised everybody.
which = this = ‘the fact that he got job’

23. Which (not what)
• ‘Which’ is used to explain the main clause.
e.g. :
1. Sarah couldn’t meet us, which was a pity.
(not what was a pity)
2. The weather was good, which we hadn’t
expected.
(not what we hadn’t expected)

24. -ing and –ed Clauses

25. -ing and -ed Clauses
Some clauses
begin with :
-ing clause
Do you know the woman
talking to Tom?
-ed clause
The boy injured in the
accident was taken
hospital.

26. -ing and -ed Clauses
Use–ingclauses
To say what
somebody/somethin
g is (or was) doing at
particular time
1. Do you know the
woman talking to
Sam?
(The woman is talking
to Sam)
2. Police investigating
the crime are looking
for three men.
(Police are
investigating the
crime)
To say what happens
all time, not just at a
particular time
1. The road
connecting the two
villages is very
narrow.
(The road connects
the two villages)
2. I have a large room
overlooking the
garden.
(The room overlooks
the garden)

27. Use –ing and –ed Clauses
• -ed clauses have a passive meaning.
e.g. :
1. The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital. ( he was
injured in the accident)
2. George showed me some pictures painted by his father. (they had
been painted by his father)
• NOTE!!!
Many past participles (V3) are irregular and do not end in –ed.
(stolen/known/made/written/etc.)
e.g. :
1. The police never found the money stolen in the robbery.
(Money was stolen in the robbery)
1. Most of the goods made in this factory are expected.

28. Use –ing and –ed Clauses
• We OFTEN use –ing and –ed clauses AFTER
there is/ there was, etc.
e.g. :
1. There were some children swimming in the
river.
2. Is there any body waiting?
3. There was a big red car parked outside the
house?

29. Source : English Grammar in Use , Cambridge