THE RELATIVE CLAUSES

Maria:  I saw Jessica the other day.

Melanie: Jessica? The girl who plays the piano?

Maria:  No, that's Natasha. Jessica is the student who dropped out of college, the one who never did any studying. She's working in a shop now, the shop that sells very expensive clothes.

The relative clauses in this conversation identify which person or thing we are talking about. The clause who plays the piano tells us which girl Melanie means. The clause that sells very expensive clothes tells us which shop Maria means.

Sometimes we can use an adjective or a phrase to identify someone or something.

Adjective:

the tall girl

the new student 

the red car

Phrase:

the man in the suit

the shop on the corner

the woman with red hair

But when we need a longer explanation, we can use a relative clause.         

Relative clause:

the woman who gets up early

the car that broke down

 

BASIC LEVEL

 

(i) Who, which and that

The relative pronouns who, which and that go after the noun and at the beginning of the relative clause.

Who refers to people.

• Nick is the man who owns that enormous dog.
• I don't like people who tell jokes all the time.
• The little girl who sat next to me on the coach ate sweets the whole way.
• Sarah is pretty annoyed with the person who stole her mobile phone.

We can also use that, but it is less usual.

• Tim is the man that plays the piano.
• The woman that lived here before us is a novelist.

That and which refer to things. That is more usual than which, especially in conversation. 

 

• The car that won the race looked very futuristic, didn't it?
• They've recaptured all the animals that escaped from the zoo.
• The children saw the actual spacecraft that landed on the moon.

Which can be a little formal.

• There are several restaurants which do Sunday lunches.
• Is Zedco the company which was taken over last year?

We do not use another pronoun like he or it with the relative pronoun. 

NOT the man who he owns that enormous dog

NOT the actual spacecraft that it landed on the moon

 

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

 

(ii) The relative pronoun as object

Subject and object

John is showing David his holiday photos.

John: That's an old castle that we visited on holiday. And those are some people we met, a couple who were staying at the camp.
David: They look very friendly.

A relative pronoun such as who or that can be the subject of a relative clause.

• John talked to a couple who were staying at the camp.

Here “who” refers “They”

who were staying at the camp = they were staying at the camp

• The letter that came this morning was from John.

Here “that” refers “it”

that came this morning = it came this morning

A relative pronoun can also be the object of a relative clause.

• Mike and John are visiting a woman who they met on holiday.

Here “who” = "her"

who they met on holiday = they met her on holidays.

• The old castle that we visited was really interesting

Here “That” = “it”

that we visited = we visited it.

We do not use another pronoun like her or it with the relative pronoun.

NOT a woman who they met her
NOT the old castle that we visited it

(iii) Who and whom

In formal English, whom is sometimes used when the object of the relative clause is a person.

• The person who/whom the police were questioning has now been released.

But in conversation whom is not very common.

(iv) Whose

Vicky: What I'd really like is a job in television.
Daniel: The other day I met a man whose sister works in television.
Vicky: Who? What's her name?
Daniel: Oh, I don't know. She's the woman whose car Tom crashed into.

Here whose sister means his sister (the sister of the man Daniel met), and whose car means her car (the car belonging to the woman). Here are some more examples.

• Someone whose instruments had been stolen was reporting it to the police.
• Wayne Johnson is the man whose goal won the game.

We use whose mainly with people, e.g. someone, the man. But sometimes it goes with other nouns.

• Which is the European country whose economy is growing the fastest?
• Round the corner was a building whose windows were all broken.
• Melanie was looking after a cat whose leg had been broken in an accident.

 

INTERMEDIATE PLUS LEVEL

(v) What

We use the relative pronoun what without a noun in front of it.

• The store didn't have what I wanted. (= the thing that I wanted) 
• What we saw gave us quite a shock. (= the thing that we saw) 

We can also use what to give emphasis (اہمیت / زور) to a word or phrase, to make it more important.

Compare these examples:

Neutral	Emphatic (اہمیت / زور)
They booked a holiday together.	What they did was book a holiday together.
John's hi-fi kept me awake.	What kept me awake was John's hi-fi.
Vicky is looking for a job in television.	What Vicky is looking for is a job in television.
He wants to make a fresh start.	What he wants to do is make a fresh start.

(vi) It

We also use it + be + a relative clause to give emphasis (اہمیت / زور).

Neutral	Emphatic (اہمیت / زور)
I'm eating brown cake.	It's brown cake (that) I'm eating.
Tom had an accident.	It was Tom who had an accident (not David).
The mobile gives me a headache.	It's the mobile that gives me a headache.

We must put in a pronoun when it is the subject of the relative clause (e.g. who had an accident).

If it is the object (e.g. that I'm eating), then we can leave it out.

ADVANCE LEVEL

(vii) Identifying clauses and adding clauses

• The man who lives next door to Jessica is rather strange. (Identifying)

This sentence identifies which thing the speaker is talking about. “who lives next door to Jessica” tells us which man.

The man is rather strange makes sense only if we know which man

• John, who lives next door to Jessica, is rather strange. (Adding)

“who lives next door to Jessica” adds information about John.

John is rather strange makes sense because the name John identifies who we are talking about.

• The river which flows through Hereford is the Wye. (Identifying)

“which flows through Hereford” tells us which river

• The Wye (which flows through Hereford) is a beautiful river. (Adding)
• The picture which was damaged is worth thousands of pounds. (Identifying)
• This famous picture – which was damaged during the war – is worth thousands of pounds. (Adding)

 

NOTE

An identifying clause does not have commas around it.

 

An adding clause has commas around it. Instead of commas, we can use brackets ( ) or dashes – –.

If the adding clause is at the end of the sentence, we need only one comma or dash.

• That's John, who lives next door.

Adding clauses can be rather formal. We use them mainly in writing. They are common in news reports. In speech we often use two short sentences.

• John lives next door to Jessica. He's rather strange.

(viii) A special use of which

In an adding clause, we can use which relating to a whole sentence, not just to a noun.

• It rained all night, which was good for the garden.

Here which means 'the fact that it rained all night'.

Here are some more examples.

• John helped me clear up, which was very kind of him.
• Maria had to work late again, which annoyed Tim.
• Tom pushed Nick into the swimming-pool, which seemed to amuse everyone.