Relative clauses

Relative clauses

1. relative pronouns

   • who/people/substitutes for subject nouns/pronouns (he, she, we, they)
   • whom/people/substitutes for object nouns/pronouns (him, her, us, them)
   • whose7people or things/substitutes for possessive nouns/pronouns (his, hers, our, their)
   • that/people or things /can be used for either subject or object /can only be used in restrictive relative clauses (see below)
   • which/things/can be used for either subject or object /can be used in non-restrictive relative clauses/ can also be used in restrictive relative clauses, though some people don’t like this use
   • Relative pronoun as subject
     • I hate the dog. THAT bit me
     • I like the person. THE PERSON was nice to me
   • Relative pronoun as object
     • I like the bike. My father gave me THE BIJKE.
     • I like the bike THAT my father gave me.

2. Restrictive Relative Clauses

   • complements the necessary information for the identification of the substantive
     • Use “that” or “which” for non-human nouns
     • use “that” or “who” for human nouns
     • Do not use commas.
   • THE PAINTINGS hang in the SASB North lobby./I like the paintings THAT hang in the SASB North lobby.
   • Non-restrictive relative clauses
     • provides additional information
       • This is essential for the precise identification of the noun
         • "That" cannot be used as a relative pronoun in a non-restrictive relative clause
           • Commas are always used at the beginning and end of this type of relative clause

3. Reducing relative clauses

   • some of these can be reduced to relative pronouns or the elimination of words
   • it is used to make the structure more concise and to have a variety of sentences

4. Subject-verb agreement in relative clauses

   • Remember that the relative pronoun is substituting for a noun, which could be singular or plural before the substitution
   • The verb in the relative clause must agree with the original noun
   • People are lucky. People win the lottery./People WHO WIN the lottery are lucky. (plural verb)/A person is lucky. She wins the lottery every year./A PERSON WHO wins the lottery every year is lucky. (singular verb)