Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses

1. Pronouns for relative clauses: who, which, that and whose

   • Who
     • This pronoun is used only to refer to people. It can act as subject or object of the sentence.
       • Example
         • The woman who works at my office is very efficient.
         • Mark’s brother, who is 18, has just started University.
   • Which
     • Unlike who, this pronoun only works for things and animals. It can also be the subject or object of the sentence.
       • Example
         • The book which I read last week is very interesting.
         • The cat, which is very friendly, is called Tom.
   • That
     • This is a pronoun that can be applied both to refer to people and things. Therefore, you can use it to substitute both who and which if the context allows it.
       • Example
         • The woman that works at my office is very efficient.
         • The book that I read last week is very interesting.
   • Whose
     • Finally, we have the pronoun whose, which we should not confuse with who since it acts as a possessive. To better identify it, think that in Spanish it would be translated as whose, whose, whose or whose:
       • Example
         • Yesterday I met the girl whose sister is a supermodel.
         • I knew the guy whose bike you bought.

2. The clauses of relative or relative clauses are those that exert the function of subordinate with respect to a main clause, adding more information about a thing or a person that had already been mentioned before.

   • There are two main types of relative clauses:
     • Defining relative clause
       • These types of sentences give information necessary to understand what we are referring to and do not have commas. This is the case of the sentence in the previous example: if we omit the subordinate sentence, we no longer know which cushions we are referring to.
         • Example
           • The cushions that are on the couch are purple and green
     • Non-defining relative clauses
       • These types of sentences provide additional information about the person or thing to which we refer, but it is not essential to identify it. In this case they do have commas. If we remove the relative clause, it remains clear which person we are referring to.
         • Example
           • His boyfriend, who is from Madrid, is studying Maths
     • References
       • https://www.amigosingleses.com/2019/03/21/relative-clauses/
         • https://whatsup.es/blog/relative-clauses-who-which-whose-or-that