The document discusses defining and non-defining relative clauses. It defines relative clauses as clauses that provide additional information about a person, thing, or place mentioned. It then explains that defining relative clauses give essential information to identify the person or thing being referred to, while non-defining clauses provide extra information and are separated by commas. Various relative pronouns like who, whom, which, whose, where and when are also explained in terms of their usage in defining and non-defining relative clauses.

1. The Relative Clause
DEFINING AND NON DEFINING

2. Relative clauses
➢give us information about the person, thing, place mentioned.
Jack, who's retired now, spends a lot of time with his grandchildren.
A serial murderer is a person who kills several people.
I found an apron which /that was covered in blood.
Whitchapel was the district where Jack the Ripper operated.

3. A Defining Relative clause
➢ gives essential information to define or identify the person or
thing/place we are talking about:
Dogs that like cats are very unusual. (Which dogs?)
They live in a house whose roof is full of holes. (Which house?)
Let’s go to a country where the sun always shines.
The dish (that/which) I ordered yesterday was delicious.

4. Defining Relative clause: pronouns
• To give essential info about
• people: who / that This is the man who told me the news.
• things: which/ that The letter that was delivered was from my boss.
places: where This is the house where we lived in when I was young.
possession: whose The cat whose left eye is injured is called Tom.
sentence: which He wouldn’t tell, which we had already expected.

5. Defining relative clause: no pronoun needed ….
• When the realtive clause already has a subject, we can drop the
relative pronoun
• Mary Kelly was a young girl (who/that) everybody loved very much.
•
• The police examined all the letters (which/that) they received.
•

6. A non-defining relative clause
• gives us extra information about someone or something. It isn't essential for
understanding who or what we are talking about.
• My grandfather, who's 87, goes swimming every day.
The house, which was built in 1883, has just been opened to the public.
The award was given to Sara, whose short story impressed the judges.
• We also use commas to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence.

7. A non-defining relative clause
➢ here we cannot use the relative pronoun that:
Polly Nichols, who that was a nurse, was murdered in 1888.
On her birthday Sandra got a pony, which that she had dreamt of.
➢ the relative pronoun cannot be dropped either
Oxford Street, which is a famous shopping street in London, is always busy.

8. The importance of a comma….
➢Can you tell the difference in meaning?
• My brother, who is a doctor, lives in Africa.
• = non-defining, your probably have only 1 brother
• My brother who is a doctor, lives in Africa.
• = defining, you have more brothers and want to talk about this one

9. Up to you: defining or non – defining
• London, which is the capital of England, is one of the largest cities in the world.
• The village where I grew up is very small.
• This is the officer that arrested the burglar.
• That's the dog that bit me.
• Greg, whose job involves travelling a lot, has been in nearly all the countries in
the world.
• The office I have just rented is near my home.

10. Up to you: defining or non – defining
• London, which is the capital of England, is one of the largest cities in the world. ND
• The village where I grew up is very small. D
• This is the officer that arrested the burglar. D
• That's the dog that bit me. D
• Greg, whose job involves travelling a lot, has been in nearly all the countries in the world.
ND
• The office I have just rented is near my home. D

11. RELATIVE PRONUONS
• WHO
• WHOM
• WHICH
• WHOSE
• WHERE
• WHEN
• THAT

12. WHO
• It is used to talk about people
• It can be the subject or the object of the relative clause
• In defining relative clauses it can be always replaced by THAT.
• In defining relative clauses it can be omitted:
if it is the object of the relative clause
if it is followed by the subject of the relative clause
if it does not have a preposition before.
Eg.: Mary,who arrived late at the party,is my cousin

13. WHOM
• It is used to talk about people. More formal than WHO
• It is always the object of the relative clause, that is, it always has a subject
afterwards.
• In defining relative clauses it can be replaced by THAT.
• In defining relative clauses it can be omitted if it does not have a preposition
before.
Eg.: Mary is the girl whom I told you about yesterday.

14. WHICH
• It is used to talk about anything but people.
• It can be the subject or the object of the relative clause
• In defining relative clauses it can be always replaced by THAT.
• In defining relative clauses it can be omitted:
if it is the object of the relative clause
if it is followed by the subject of the relative clause
if it does not have a preposition before.
• Eg.: That car, which she bought last month, is a Ferrari.

15. WHOSE
• It is used to talk about possession.
• It cannot be substituted by any pronouns.
• It cannot be omitted in any case.
• It is always followed by whatever is possessed.
• Eg.: That is the boy whose mother is a doctor

16. WHERE
• It is used to talk about places when they are not the subject nor the object of the
relative clause, that is when they are followed by a subject and they are not an
object in the relative clause.
Eg.: That is the museum where I went last month

17. WHEN
• It is used to talk about times when they are not the subject nor the object of the
relative clause, that is when they are followed by a subject and they are not an
object in the relative clause.
Eg.: May is the month when flowers bloom.

18. THAT
• It only appears in Defing Relative Clauses.
• It may substitute WHO, WHOM and WHICH.
• It can be omitted if it is the object of the relative clause, that is, if it is followed by
the subject.
Eg: Paul is the man that I like so much.

19. RELATIVE CLAUSES
DEFINING NON-DEFINING
PRONOUNS PRONOUNS
WHO/WHOM/WHICH
THAT
WHOSE/
WHERE/
WHEN
WHO/
WHOM/
WHICH/
WHOSE/
WHERE/
WHEN

20. Steps to join two sentences in a relative clause
1.- Find the common element
The man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.

21. 2.- Cross out the second element.
That man is very tall. I saw him yesterday.
3.- Start copying the first sentence until the first common
element.
4.- Write the relative pronoun:
who
which
whose
That man

22. 5.- Copy the second sentence, except the element we had
crossed out.
I saw yesterday
The man who
6.- If there is anything left from the first sentence, copy it
afterwards.
is very tall.
The man who I saw yesterday

23. 7.- Check if you can write THAT instead of WHO, WHOM,
WHICH
The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.
that
8.- Check if you can omit the pronouns.
The man who I saw yesterday is very tall.
that
9.- The sentence is ready!!!
The man I saw yesterday is very tall.

24. Re write these sentences using relative clauses.
Use who, whose and which.
• Example:
He drank the juice. He made the juice. He drank the juice which he made.
1. A lion is an animal. It is very strong.
A lion
2. A novelist is a person. He writes novels.
A novelist
3. A bottle opener is a device. It opens bottles.
A bottle opener
4. The girl speaks Chinese. Her mother writes poems.
The girl
5. A detective is someone. He discovers the truth about crimes.
A detective

25. ANSWERS
• A lion is an animal which is very strong .
• A novelist is a person who writes novels.
• A bottle opener is a device which opens bottles.
• The girl whose mother writes poems speaks Chinese.
• A detective is someone who discovers the truth about crimes.