Defining and Non defining

Defining and Non defining

1. Places: where

2. This is the place (where) I was born

3. Time: when

4. That is the year (when) I was born.

5. Reasons: why

6. DEFINING

   • Relative clauses are sentences that allow us to give more specific information about what we are talking about. Broadly speaking, we can have two types of relative clauses:
     • 1. Defining, if they do not go between commas and are essential in the sentence to give it the meaning we want.
       • In this type of sentence we will use the following relative pronouns:
         • People: who / that + whose (possession)
         • This is the boy (who / that) I saw last night. This is the boy whose toy was missing.
         • Animals or things: which / that + whose (possession)
         • This is the cat (which / that) I saw last night. This is the cat whose milk was missing.

7. Non defining

   • if they go between commas and make a dispensable clarification that provides us with additional but not essential information. In this case the pronouns are the same, except for that, which cannot be used in this type of relative clauses, and why, which is considered to always provide essential information and therefore has no place in the context of a non defining.
     • If we remove the non-definig relative clause we could understand the phrase perfectly (my neighbor is rich). This explains that the non-defining clause adds extra information that is not necessary to understand what we are talking about.
       • The man who I told you about is very friendly. This sentence contains a relative clause that cannot be omitted because it is important for understanding the whole sentence. We are before a defining relative clause.
         • My teacher, who has been working at the same school for 5 years, is getting married on Saturday. the same school for 5 years is not critical to understanding the phrase. This is a non-defining relative clause, separated from the main sentence by commas.