RELATIVE CLAUSES

Before we can talk about how to make adjective clauses, let me give you some examples of the different kinds of adjective clauses. Click on the green question mark to understand the different types better.

Main sentence = The people had a good time.
Adjective clause = The people came to my party.

Main sentence = The turkey was delicious.
Adjective clause = My father cooked the turkey.

Main sentence = The woman was my sister, Karen.
Adjective clause = The woman's baby cried during dinner.

In the adjective clause, the possessive = woman's (the baby belongs to the woman)

Main sentence = The house belongs to my Uncle Kenneth.
Adjective clause = We had the party at my Uncle Kenneth's house.

§ A "defining" or identifying clause, which tells us which person or thing we are talking about.

§ A "non-defining" or non-essential clause, which gives us more information about the person or thing we are talking about. This kind of clause could often be information included in brackets (...)

The farmer (his name was Fred) sold us some potatoes.

The farmer, whose name was Fred, sold us some potatoes.

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

a. the choice of pronoun used to introduce the clause,
b. the punctuation - you must use commas with a non-defining clause.

As the name suggests, these clauses give essential information to define or identify the person or thing we are talking about. Obviously, this is only necessary if there is more than one person or thing involved.

Example:
Elephants who marry mice are very unusual.
In this sentence we understand that there are many elephants, but it is clear that we are only talking the ones who marry mice.

Relative pronouns
The following relative pronouns are used in defining relative clauses:

	Person	Thing	Place	Time	Reason
Subject	who/that	which/that
Object	who/whom/that/ø	which/that/ø	where	when	why
Possessive	whose	whose

The woman	who/that	spoke at the meeting	was very knowledgeable.
Noun, subject of main clause	relative pronoun referring to 'the woman', subject of 'spoke'	verb + rest of relative clause	verb + rest of main clause

2. Who, whom and which can be replaced by that. This is very common in spoken English.

3. The relative pronoun can be omitted (ø) when it is the object of the clause:

The mouse that the elephant loved was very beautiful.
OR The mouse the elephant loved was very beautiful.

Both of these sentences are correct, though the second one is more common in spoken English.

The mouse	that/ø	the elephant loved	was very beautiful.
Noun, subject of main clause	relative pronoun, referring to 'the mouse, object of 'loved'	verb + rest of relative clause	verb + rest of main clause.

(You can usually decide whether a relative pronoun is an object because it is normally followed by another subject + verb.)

Examples:
The man whose car was stolen.
A tree whose leaves have fallen.

5. Whom is very formal and is only used in written English. You can use who/that, or omit the pronoun completely :

6. That normally follows words like something, anything, everything, nothing, all, and superlatives.

The information in these clauses is not essential. It tells us more about someone or something, but it does not help us to identify them or it.
Compare:

1. Elephants that love mice are very unusual. (This tells us which elephants we are talking about).

2. Elephants, which are large and grey, can sometimes be found in zoos. (This gives us some extra information about elephants - we are talking about all elephants, not just one type or group).

3. John's mother, who lives in Scotland, has 6 grandchildren. (We know who John's mother is, and he only has one. The important information is the number of grandchildren, but the fact that she lives in Scotland might be followed with the words "by the way" - it is additional information).

Punctuation
Non-defining relative clauses are always separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The commas have a similar function to brackets:
My friend John has just written a best-selling novel. (He went to the same school as me) > My friend John, who went to the same school as me, has just written a best-selling novel.

	Person	Thing	Place
Subject	who	which
Object	who/whom	which	where
Possessive	whose

1. In non-defining clauses, you cannot use ?that? instead of who, whom or which.

2. You cannot leave out the relative pronoun, even when it is the object of the verb in the relative clause:
He gave me the letter, which was in a blue envelope.
He gave me the letter, which I read immediately

3. The preposition in these clauses can go at the end of the clause, e.g. This is Stratford-on-Avon, which you have all heard about.

This pattern is often used in spoken English, but in written or formal English you can also put the preposition before the pronoun: e.g. Stratford-on-Avon, about which many people have written is Shakespeare?s birthplace.

4. Non-defining clauses can be introduced by expressions like all of, many of + relative pronoun:

	Person	Thing
*all of*	+ whom	+ which
*any of*	+ whom	+ which
*(a) few of*	+ whom	+ which
*both of*	+ whom	+ which
*each of*	+ whom	+ which
*either of*	+ whom	+ which
*half of*	+ whom	+ which
*many of*	+ whom	+ which
*most of*	+ whom	+ which
*much of*	+ whom	+ which
*none of*	+ whom	+ which
*one of*	+ whom	+ which
*two of etc?*	+ whom	+ which

a. There were a lot of people at the party, many of whom I had known for years.

5. The relative pronoun which at the beginning of a non-defining relative clause, can refer to all the information contained in the previous part of the sentence, rather than to just one word.

a. Chris did really well in his exams, which was a big surprise. (= the fact that he did well in his exams was a big surprise).

b. An elephant and a mouse fell in love, which is most unusual. (= the fact that they fell in love is unusual).

a. My grandmother, who is dead now, came from the North of England.
b. I spoke to Fred, who explained the problem.
c. The elephant looked at the tree, under which she had often sat.
d. We stopped at the museum, which we?d never been into.
e. She?s studying maths, which many people hate.
f. I?ve just met Susan, whose husband works in London.
g. He had thousands of books, most of which he had read.

There are often prepositions in relative clauses, and the relative pronoun is the object of the preposition. This means that the preposition can sometimes be omitted.

§ The preposition is normally placed at the end of the relative clause:

Is that the man (who) you arrived with?
Do you know the girl (that) John is talking to?

§ In formal or written English, the preposition is often placed before the relative pronoun, and in this case the pronoun cannot be omitted:

The person with whom he is negotiating is the Chairman of a large company.

It is a society to which many important people belong.

§ The jungle the elephant lived in was full of strange and unusual animals.

§ The tree under which they had their home was the largest and oldest in the jungle.

§ In the middle of the jungle was a river that all the animals went to every day.

§ It was the stream in which the elephant and the mouse preferred to swim.