Relative Clauses

Defining Relative Clauses

1. tell us some essential information that help us understanding what the speaker is refering to.

• Ex: the papper that Raquel is using is soft (if we just say "the papper is soft" and ignore the words in bold, the other people wouldn't understand which papper we are talking about)

1. Relative clauses begin with relative pronouns:

• who (for people)
• which (for things)
• that (for people and things)

1. The relative pronoun can be the subkect or object of the clause:

• Ex1: The papper which is in Raquel's right hand is soft ( the relative pronoun is subject of the clause)
• Ex2: The papper that raquel is using is soft ( the relative pronoun is object of the clause)

1. We can often omit the relative pronoun when it's the object:

• Ex: The papper (that) we're looking at is soft

1. Defining relative clauses are not used between commas