17th march_relative clauses

8/7/2019 17th March_relative Clauses

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RELATIVE CLAUSES



WH AT ARE RELATIVE CLAUSES?

Subordinate clauses which allow us to add

information about people or things we are talkingto, without a need to repeat the name

e.g. That is the house. The house was built on the

main road.

That is the house which was built on the main road.



Relative clauses are introduced just

after the antecedent and are introduced

by a pronoun or a relative adverb.There are two types of relative clauses:

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES



DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

They give essential information about their

antecedent and without them, the meaning

will be incompleted. That is why you writethem without commas. (oraciones

especificativas)

The computer which we bought is very

expensive

The man who is coming will bring us the

present



Relative pronouns can¶t be omitted if it¶s the subject of the relative clauses.

The man who visited us yesterday is an actor.

The house that was so old was rebuilt.But if it¶s not the subject it can be omitted

The man (whom/that) I met at the party told

me the truth

The house (which/that) we bought is very comfortable



If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb,

then it can¶t be omitted. If the relative is followed

by a subject + verb, then it¶s almost sure you can

drop it

whose can¶t be omitted, though it¶s never a

subject

e.g. The horse whose leg you broke had to be killed

µwhat¶ means µel que¶ µlas cosas que¶ and is used when

the antecedent is understood

e.g. I know what you did last summer.



After prepositions you write whom for people and whichfor things, but it is more common to place

prepositions at the end of the sentence (and it ismore usual in spoken English).

e.g. This is the boy about whom you were asking me

This is the boy (who) you were asking me about.

Only who and which, you can¶t use it with µthat¶



NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

If we remove this relative clause, there¶s no problem

to understand the main sentence, since it gives extra

information. Thus, we write it between commas.

e.g. The European Police Force, which began working in

1999, is called Europol.



The antencedent is usually a proper name of a personor thing and it contains a possessive like µmy¶, µhis¶,

µher¶, the definite article µthe¶ or demonstratives like

µthis¶, µthat¶, µthese¶ or µthose¶:

My house, which is quite comfortable, needs

redecorating.

This book, which I bought last week, is not as

interesting as I thought.



MAIN FEATURES

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

- Always neccessary.

- Relatives can be subject or object.

- Subject relatives can¶t be omitted.- Object relatives can be omitted.

- «T H AT» can be used with people and

things.

- W hat can be used.

- No neccessary.

- Always between commas.

- µThat¶ is not allowed.- The relative pronoun can¶t be omitted.

- It¶s less frequent than defining relative

clauses. It is more formal and they are

usually used in written texts.



SUMMARY

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

WH O AND T H AT REFER TO PEOPLE There are many holidaymakers who / that prefer

travelling in their own country

WH O REFERS TO PEOPLE In the past some people, who were rich, used to visit

battlefields.

WH IC H AND T H AT REFER TO OBJECTS /

T H INGS Dark tourism is a phenomenon which / that is attracting

many people

WH IC H REFERS TO T H INGS H e sent me flowers, which was very nice of him.

WH EN REFERS TO A MOMENT IN TIME It was in 1986 when the Chernobyl disaster took place.

WH EN REFERS TO A MOMENT IN TIME I went to Italy last year, when I enjoyed a lot.

WH ERE REFERS TO A PARTICULAR PLACE Many people visit places where tragedies have

happened.

WH ERE REFERS TO A PARTICULAR PLACE They visited Iniesta, where they had a great time.

WH OSE REFERS TO POSSESSION Dr Barrett is a researcher whose studey of dark tourism

has just been completed.

WH OSE REFERS TO POSSESSION Dalí, whose pictures are wonderful, painted this one.



EXERCISES

� 1 You asked me to get a paper. H ere¶s the paper.

� H ere¶s __________________________________________________________

� 2 You recommended a film. W e went to see the film but we didn¶t think much of it.

� W e went____________________________________________________________

� 3 My sister bought a new car last month. The car has broken down four times

already.

� The car _____________________________________________________________

� 4 You didn¶t recognise an actor on television last night. The actor was Kiefer

Sutherland.

� The actor ___________________________________________________________

� 5 Jane had some friends at school. Only a very few of the friends went on to

university.

� Only _______________________________________________________________

the paper which / that you asked me to get

to see the film which / that you recommended but we didn·t think much of it.

which / that my sister bought last month has broken down four times already.

who / that you didn·t recognise on television last night was Kiefer Sutherland.

a very few of the friends who / that Jane had at school went on to university.



� 6 My father had an operation for his heart problem. The operation was only a partial

success.

� The operation ________________________________________________________

� 7 Mark wrote an essay while we were on holiday. The essay has won a prize in the

school competition.

� The essay ___________________________________________________________

� 8 It was rude of you not to invite me to your wedding.

� You didn¶t invite me to your wedding,

________________________________________

� 9 It was stupid of you not to tell me about it.

� You didn¶t tell me about it,________________________________________________

which / that my father had for his heart problem was only a partial success.

which / that Mark wrote while were on holiday has won a prize in the school.

which was rude of you.

which was stupied of you.



THE END

17th march_relative clauses

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