| Grammar Clinic
Relative Clauses give extra information about a noun in the main clause.Instead of giving that extra information in two (or more) separate sentences, we choose to combine the sentences into one.
For example:
This is Susan. She came yesterday. = Susan is the person who came yesterday.
That is my bicycle. My father gave it to me when I was younger. = That is the bicycle that my father gave me when I was younger.
You know that nouns may function in different ways in the sentence:subject, object (direct / indirect), object of a preposition. This extra information may refer to a noun in any of those positions.
For example:
John, who decided to stay home all day, will feed the birds. (Subject)
I got a letter from Mary, who is in Austria now. (Object of Preposition)
Could you see the man who was standing at the gate? (Direct Object)
Relative Clauses can be:
1. Defining: they give important information that is essential to the meaning of the sentence (they can’t be omitted).
For example:
The movie that I saw last night was really exciting.
The man who answered the phone was not Mr. Smith.
In this type of clauses the relative pronoun (who/that/which) can be left out only if the relative word refers to the object of the sentence.
For example:
Did you talk to the woman (who/that) I showed in?
Have you seen the CD (that/which) Mary gave me last night?
2. Non-defining: they add extra information (not essential to the meaning ofthe whole sentence).
They are separated by commas in writing and have different intonation in speaking (if omitted the meaning of the sentences is still the same).
For example:
The old man, who was looking sick, asked me to call an ambulance
They suggested going to Paris, which sounded great to me.
In this type of clauses the relative pronoun can’t be left out.
It has to be used after prepositions in writing (in speaking it is generally omitted).
These notes on relative clauses don’t mean to be exhaustive, but I have tried to give you a brief explanation, which I hope, may help you understand and use these clauses effectively.
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