Understanding Relative Clauses: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Sentences that give an explanation Relative clauses

2. Who, whose, which, that, where, when • The man ___________ helped the children was a fireman. • The wave _____________ saved me threw the carriage to a higher ground • I remembered everything ___________ I needed to stay calm. • I will always remember the year _________ I visited Australia. • Death Valley is a desert ______________ many people have died due to the extremely high temperatures. • The families ______________ children died in last year’s earthquake will never recover from the trauma.

3. Relative pronouns and their referals

4. More details about relative clauses and pronouns • The relative pronoun can be omitted when it’s not the subject of the relative clause: • The girl (who) I saw yesterday was my ex-girlfriend. • The exercises (which) our teacher gave us are very difficult. • Non-defining: they are separated by commas. They give some dispensable information. They don’t admit “that” or any omission. • That boy, who I met the other night, is very strange. • This country, about which our teacher has told us a lot, sounds really interesting. • Prepositions: they usually go at the end of the sentence: • Spain is the country where I come from. • Pop is the music I generally listen to.

5. REPHRASING APPLICATION • Wewillgenerallyfindtwojuxtaposedsentences, separatedby a full stop: • “I met a womantheotherday. I didn’trecogniseher.” • Wemustidentifythetwoelementswhich are repeated in bothsentences: • “I meta womantheotherday. I didn’trecogniseher.” • Accordingtothereference, wemust use oneoranotherrelativepronoun. • I met a womanwho I didn’trecognisetheotherday. • Whenwefind a possessive in thesecondsentence,wemustrememberto use “whose”. • “Thewomanhad a nervousbreakdown. Herhousewasvandalized.” • “Thewomanwhosehousewasvandalizedhad a nervousbreakdown.”