Relative Clauses

Relative clauses

Relative Pronouns

The relative pronouns are:

Subject Object Possessive
who who/whom whose
which which whose
that that -

We use relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses. Relative clauses tell us more about people and things:

  • Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
  • This is the house which Jack built.
  • Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.

We use:

  • who and whom for people
  • which for things
  • that for people or things.

Relative clauses

There are two kinds of relative clause:

1.  We use relative clauses to make clear which person or thing we are talking about. This kind of clause could often be information included in brackets (...). We call this is "defining" or "identifying" clause

  • Marie Curie is the woman who discovered radium.
  • This is the house which Jack built.
  • The farmer whose name was Fred sold us some potatoes. = The farmer (his name was Fred) sold us some potatoes.

In this kind of relative clause, we can use that instead of who or which:

  • Marie Curie is the woman that discovered radium.
  • This is the house that Jack built.

We can leave out the pronoun if it is the object of the relative clause:

  • This is the house that Jack built. (that is the object of built)
2. "non-defining" or non-essential clause
which gives us more information about the person or thing we are talking about (in general).

Examples

  • Gorillas, which are large and orignate in Africa, can sometimes be found in zoos. (non-defining clause)
  • Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
  • We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy.
  • I met Rebecca in town yesterday, which was a nice surprise.

With this kind of relative clause, we use commas (,) to separate it from the rest of the sentence.

NOTE: In this kind of relative clause, we cannot use that: and we cannot leave out the pronoun:

  • Lord Thompson, who is 76, has just retired.
  • (NOT Lord Thompson, that is 76, has just retired.)
  • We had fish and chips, which I always enjoy.
  • (NOT We had fish and chips, I always enjoy.)

It is important to see the difference between the two types of clause, as it affects:

  • the choice of pronoun used to introduce the clause,
  • the punctuation - you must use commas with a non-defining clause.
Also see  "Pronouns" section for more information.