Relatives Clauses and Pronouns

Relatives Clauses and Pronouns

Introduction You will possibly be tested on your knowledge of relative clauses & pronouns in Part 2 of Reading and Use of English. Defining relative clauses give essential information about a sentence and cannot be omitted. Non-defining relative clauses give extra, non-essential information and therefore could be omitted: Example defining relative clause: 'English students who do their homework deserve a lot of praise.' (Only those who do homework deserve praise. The information about homework is essential) Example non-defining relative clause: 'English students, who do their homework, deserve a lot of praise.' (English students deserve a lot of praise. The information about homework is additional) In defining relative clauses The pronoun is often omitted when defining the object of the clause, but not when it is the subject of a clause: Example: He's the man (who/that) I was telling you about. Example: That's the man who helped me with my shopping. Non-defining 'that' is not used in non-defining relative clauses and the relative pronoun cannot be omitted. Position of prepositions In both defining and non-defining relative clauses, prepositions can go either before the relative pronoun or at the end of the relative clause. The latter is common in spoken English the former in formal writing: Example: That's the man (who) I was telling you about. This is the man about whom much has been written. Nominal relative pronouns Note also the following nominal relative pronouns: whatever, whenever, whoever, whichever, wherever, however Contrast >> Part 2: Open Cloze Reminder: Part 2 consists of a short text which has 8 gaps. For each gap you have to add the missing word. Example: ..... I know you haven't decided where to go for your holiday yet but ........ it is I hope you have a great time. Answer: 'wherever'