ENGLISH GRAMMAR 4º (June, 10th)
RELATIVE CLAUSES
(UNIT 8)
WHAT ARE THEY?
Relative Clauses are a
type of subordinate clauses functioning as an adjective and referring to a noun
before them (antecedent). They are introduced by a relative pronoun. In
Spanish, the main relative pronoun introducing a relative cause is ‘que’.
However, the relative pronoun will vary according the type of antecedent in
English (who/which/that…).
HOW DO WE CHOSE THE CORRECT RELATIVE PRONOUN or
ADVERB?
By looking at the
antecedent of the relative clause (the noun just before the gap you would have
to fill in), you will decide the appropriate relative pronoun or adverb to use.
!!!!! Pay
attention to ‘WHOSE’ , it’s the only relative pronoun with a different
translation into Spanish, since it expresses ‘possession’.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEFINING AND
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES?
There are two types of
relative clauses:
- DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES, which give essential, crucial
information for the understanding of the
sentence.
For
example: Imagine you have the following sentence ‘The man who is tall’,
if you quit the relative clause (underlined), you will have no sentence., so
it’s crucial.
- NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES, which give or add extra information,
not crucial for the understanding of the sentence and that’s why they are
written between commas.
For
example : Imagine you have the following sentence ‘That man, who is my boss,
is tall’, if you quit the relative clause (underlined), you still have a
sentence, so it’s not essential for its understanding.
WHEN CAN WE OMIT THE RELATIVE PRONOUN?
Although with some
exceptions, whenever the relative pronoun is not functioning as the subject of
the relative clause, we can omit it.
!!!!!!
Usually, if you have a subject after the relative pronoun you can omit it, but
not if you have a verb after it.
For
example : ‘The man who is tall’ We cannot omit it because we have a verb (‘is’)
after it.
‘The man
who I saw’ We can omit it because we have a subject (‘I’) after it.
!!!!!!
Notice you can’t omit the relative in Non-defining relative clauses.
!!!!!!
Remember relative adverbs cannot be omitted.
ACTIVITIES
1.-Copy the following chart in your notebook.
2.-Click on the links to practice choosing the
appropriate relative pronoun or adverb where necessary.
