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Relative Clauses
What is a relative clause?
We can use relative clauses to join two English sentences, or to give more information about
something.
•
I bought a new car. It is very fast.
→ I bought a new car that is very fast.
•
She lives in New York. She likes living in New York.
→ She lives in New York, which
she likes.
Defining and Non-defining
A
defining relative clause
tells which noun we are talking about:
•
I like the woman who lives next door.
(If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).
A
non-defining relative clause
gives us extra information about something. We don't need this
information to understand the sentence.
•
I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.
(Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is extra
information).
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© www.perfect-english-grammar.com
May be freely copied for personal or classroom use.
Defining relative clauses
1: The relative pronoun is the subject.
First, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the subject of a defining relative clause. We
can use 'who', 'which' or 'that'. We use 'who' for people and 'which' for things. We can use 'that'
for people or things.
The relative clause can come after the subject or the object of the sentence. We can't drop the
relative pronoun.
For example (clause after
the object
of the sentence):
•
I'm looking for a secretary
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