5TH YEAR E.O.

I
UNIT 7: RELATIVE CLAUSES

• Relative clauses are introduced with either a relative pronoun or a relative

adverb.

• RELATIVE PRONOUNS:

WHO(M) /THAT To refer to people

WHICH/THAT To refer to things
WHOSE With people, animals and objects to show
possession (instead of a possessive adjective).

• Who, which and that can be omitted when they are the object of the
relative clause:
“That is the film (that) I was telling you about”.
• Whom can be used instead of who when it is the object of the relative
clause. Whom is always used instead of who or that after a preposition:
“She´s someone with whom I used to work”.
• Who, which or that is not omitted when it is the subject of a relative
clause:
“The play which won the Tony Award was a musical”.
• Whose is never omitted:
“This is Bruce whose photographs you must have seen”.

• RELATIVE ADVERBS:

WHEN To refer to a time and can be omitted.

/THAT
WHERE To refer to a place.
WHY To give a reason, usually after the word “reason”and
can be omitted.

• DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

• A defining relative clause gives necessary information essential to the

meaning of the main sentence. It is not put between commas and is
introduced with who, which, that, whose, when, where or the reason
(why).
“Any student who is caught cheating will be expelled”.

• A non-defining relative clause gives extra information and is not essential

to the meaning of the main sentence. It is put between commas and is
introduced with who, whom, which, whose, where or when.
“A student, who was caught cheating, was expelled”.