Relative clauses (theory)

 Relative clauses give us additional information about a sentence.




The dog that was in the park is a labrador






We use a relative pronoun or adverb to introduce the relative clause: who, which, that, whose, whom, when, where, why

PRONOUNS

WHO: this pronoun is used to talk about people

My friend Juan is the person who won the race

WHICH: which is used under one condition:

                We are talking about an object: this is the car which I was talking about

THAT: we use that to talk both about people and objects; it can replace who and which, but it is less formal

He is the boy that everybody is talking about

You broke the vase that your grand-mother brought from China

*caution* there is one instance on which we cannot use that: in non defining clauses.

A non-defining clause gives extra information that is not necessary for us to understand the phrase,whereas defining clauses give us information we need to understand it. For example, a non-defining clause is:

Daniel, who I work with, likes baking

The information is not necessary because we could understand the sentences without the non-defining clause: Daniel likes baking,

On the other hand, a defining clause is necessary for us to understand the whole idea:

These are some of the stray cats that my grand-father feeds.

ADVERBS
WHOSE is used to express possession:

The girl whose dog bit me is wearing a yellow jumper

WHOM is a rather formal adverb. It can replace who, but only when it is an object, not a subject

This is the boy whom your parents pay to mow the lawn.

It is common to use whom with dependent prepositions:

That is the person to whom I will apologize 

WHEN refers to a time reference:

Those days back then when I went on vacation, I was happy

WHERE refers to a place

That is the restaurant where they cook the best fried chicken in town

WHY is used to talk about reasons and explanations

- Your constant efforts to get everyone´s attention are the reason why your whole family is deeply disappointed in you and these behaviors are why you most likely will die alone and depressed, no offense.
-None take

*bonus lesson*: a very native-sounding structure in a dialogue: 

-You smell foul, no offense 
- None taken, I have not showered in a few days. 

When somebody says a harsh truth to other person but they want to make sure they are not being rude,  they end the sentence with no offense. In this situation, the expected answer is none taken (unless you have indeed taken offense).

You can practice with the following game:


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