English: Clause

RELATIVE CLAUSES

There are two different types of relative clause:

1.  A “defining” or identifying clause, which tells us which person or thing we are talking about. This kind of clause could often be information included in brackets (…)

2.  A “non-defining” or non-essential clause, which gives us more information about the person or thing we are talking about.

Examples 

• The farmer (his name was Rajesh) sold us some potatoes. 

• The farmer, whose name was Rajesh , sold us some potatoes.       

  It is important to see the difference between the two types of clause, as it affects:

  the choice of pronoun used to introduce the clause,   the punctuation – you must use commas with a non-defining clause

WHERE TO PUT THE PREPOSITION IN A RELATIVE CLAUSE

• There are often prepositions in relative clauses, and the relative pronoun is the object of the preposition. This means that the preposition can sometimes be omitted. 

• The preposition is normally placed at the end of the relative clause:

Example:

• Is that the man (who) you arrived with?

• Do you know the girl (that) John is talking to?

In formal or written English, the preposition is often placed before the relative pronoun, and in this case the pronoun cannot be omitted:

Examples

• The person with whom he is negotiating is the Chairman of a large company. • It is a society to which many important people belong.

However, this is unusual in spoken English.

Examples   The jungle the tribe lived in was full of strange and unusual animals.   He liked the people that he lived with.   The tree under which they had their picnic was the largest and oldest in the park.   To the east of the city was a lake that many people went to on the weekend.   It was the river in which the children preferred to swim.

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES

The information in these clauses is not essential. It tells us more about someone or something, but it does not help us to identify them or it.

Compare:

• Dogs that like cats are very unusual. (This tells us which dogs we are talking about). 

• Gorillas, which are large and orignate in Africa, can sometimes be found in zoos. (This gives us some extra information about gorillas – we are talking about all gorillas, not just one type or group).

Punctuation Non-defining relative clauses are always separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The commas have a similar function to brackets:

• My friend John has just written a best-selling novel. (He went to the same school as me)

• My friend John, who went to the same school as me, has just written a bestselling novel.

Relative pronouns in non-defining clauses

Person Thing Place Subject who which Object who/whom which where Possessive whose

Non-defining clauses can be introduced by expressions like all of, many of + relative pronoun:

Person Thing all of + whom + which any of + whom + which (a) few of + whom + which both of + whom + which each of + whom + which either of + whom + which half of + whom + which many of + whom + which most of + whom + which much of + whom + which none of + whom + which one of + whom + which two of etc… + whom + which

Examples

• My grandmother,who is dead now, came from the North of England. • I spoke to Fred,who explained the problem. • The old man looked at the tree,under which he had often sat. • We stopped at the museum,which we’d never been into. • She’s studying maths,which many people hate. • I’ve just met Susan,whose husband works in London. • He had thousands of books,most of which he had read.