Introduction - Relative clauses with who, which and thatEmma: / saw Natalie the other day.
Melanie: Natalie? The girl who plays the piano?
Emma: No, that's Natasha. Natalie is the student who dropped out of college, the one who never did any studying. She's working in Davidson's now, the shop that sells very expensive clothes.
Introduction - Relative clauses with who, which and that
Emma: / saw Natalie the other day.
Melanie: Natalie? The girl who plays the piano?
Emma: No, that's Natasha. Natalie is the student who dropped out of college, the one who never did any studying. She's working in Davidson's 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 Emma 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
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.
Jake is the man that plays the guitar.
The woman that lived here before us is a romantic 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?
Relative clauses (1)
A relative clause gives more information about someone or something referred to in a main clause. Some relative clauses (defining relative clauses) are used to specify which person or thing we mean, or which type of person or thing we mean:
The couple who live next to us have sixteen grandchildren.
Andrew stopped the police car that was driving past.
Notice that we don't put a comma between the noun and a defining relative clause. Relative
clauses begin with a relative pronoun: a wh-word (who, which, etc.) or that.
However, sometimes we omit the wh-word I that and use a zero relative pronoun:
We went to a restaurant (which/that) Jane had recommended to us.
We prefer to put a relative clause immediately after or as close as possible to the noun it adds information to:
The building for sale was the house which had a slate roof and was by the stream.
(rather than The building for sale was the house by the stream which had a slate roof.)
When we use a defining relative clause, the relative pronoun can be the subject or the object of the clause. In the following sentences the relative pronoun is the subject. Notice that the verb follows the relative pronoun:
Rockall is an uninhabited island which/that lies north west of mainland Scotland.
We have a friend who/that plays the piano.
In the following sentences the relative pronoun is the object. Notice that there is a noun (or pronoun) between the relative pronoun and the verb in the relative clause. In this case, we can
use a zero relative pronoun:
He showed me the rocks (which/that) he had brought back from Australia.
That's the man (who/that) I met at Allison's party.
Adding information about things
X
√ √
√ √
√ subject
order zero relative pronoun that which relative pronoun
Adding information about people
X
√ √
√ √
√ subject
order zero relative pronoun that who relative pronoun
We can also use whom instead of who as object, although whom is very formal:
She's an actress whom most people think is at the peak of her career.
We use that as subject after something and anything; words such as all, little, much, and none used as nouns; and superlatives. (Which is also used as subject after something and anything, but less commonly.) We use that or zero relative pronoun as object after these:
These walls are all that remain of the city, (not ...all which remain...)
She's one of the kindest people (that) I know, (not ...who I know.)
Is there anything (that) I can do to help? (rather than ...anything which I can do...)
You can't add a subject or object to the relative clause in addition to the relative pronoun:
The man who gave me the book was the librarian, (not The man who he gave me...)
Notice also that adding a pronoun to the main clause in addition to the relative clause is
unnecessary, although it is found in speech:
A friend of mine who is a solicitor helped me. (or, in speech A friend of mine who is a solicitor - she helped me.)
Exercises: 1 & 2
Relative clauses (2)
Some relative clauses are used to add extra information about a noun, but this information is
not necessary to explain which person or thing we mean:
Valerie Polkoff, who has died aged 90, escaped from Russia with her family in 1917.
These are sometimes called non-defining relative clauses. We don't use them often in everyday speech, but they occur frequently in written English. Notice that we put a comma between the noun and a non-defining relative clause, and another comma at the end of this clause if it is not also the end of a sentence.
When we use a non-defining relative clause to add information about a person or people:
we use who as the subject of the clause
One of the people arrested was Mary Arundel, who is a member of the local council.
we use who or whom as the object of the clause,
although whom is more formal and rarely used in spoken English:
Professor Johnson, who(m) I have long admired, is to visit the university next week.
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