The complex sentence: relative pronouns and clauses
Relative pronouns and clauses
Study:
Introduction to relative clauses
Suppose you want to write a paragraph like this:
The house we moved into is absolutely beautiful. The people who lived here before us took
very great care of it. The garden, which is quite small, is lovely. I'm glad we moved. I don't
think we'll ever regret the decision we made.
If we want to speak or write like this, we have to master relative clauses. We introduce relative
clauses with these relative pronouns: who, who(m), which, that and whose.
'Who', 'which' and 'that' as subjects of a relative clause
1) We use who or that to refer to people. We use them in place of noun subjects or pronoun
subjects (I, you, he, etc.) and we cannot omit them.
They do not change when they refer to masculine, feminine, singular or plural:
He is the man/She is the woman who/that lives here. (Not 'He is the man who he ... *)
They are the men/ women who/that live here. (Not *They are the men who they ... *)
2) We use which or that (in place of noun subjects and it) to refer to animals and things:
That's the cat which/that lives next door. Those are the cats which/that live next door.
Here’s a photo which/that shows my car. Here are some photos which/that show my car.
Write:
Join these sentences using who or which. (All of them will also join with that.)
1) He's the accountant. He does my accounts.
-> He’s the accountant who does my accounts.
2)She's the nurse. She looked after me.
.........................................................
3)They're the postcards. They arrived yesterday
. ..........................................................
4)They're the secretaries. They work in our office.
............................................................
5)That's the magazine. It arrived this morning.
..........................................................
6) They're the workmen. They repaired our roof.
..........................................................
'Who(m)', 'which' and 'that' as objects of a relative clause
Study:
I
1) We use who(m) or that to refer to people. We use them in place of noun objects or object
pronouns (me, you, him, etc.). We often say who instead of whom when we speak.
They do not change when they refer to masculine, feminine, singular or plural:
He's the man/She's the woman who(m)/that I met. (Not 'He's the man that I met him. *)
They're the men/women who(m)/that I met. (Not 'They are the men that I met them. *)
However, we usually omit who(m) and that. We say:
He's the man/She’s the woman I met. They're the men/They're the women I met.
2) We use which or that (in place of noun objects or it) to refer to animals and things:
That's the cat which/that I photographed. Those are the cats which/that I photographed.
That's the photo which/that I took. Those are the photos which/that I took.
However, we usually omit which and that. We say:
That's the cat I photographed. Those are the cats I photographed.
That's the photo I took. Those are the photos I took.
Write:
Join these sentences with who(m), which or nothing. (All of them will join with that.)
1) He's the accountant. You recommended him to me.
->He’s the accountant you recommended.
2) She's the nurse. I saw her at the hospital.
........................................................
3) They're the postcards. I sent them from Spain.
......................................................
4) They're the secretaries. Mr Pym employed them.
.....................................................
5) That's the magazine. I got it for you yesterday.
......................................................
6) They're the workmen. I paid them for the job.
.....................................................
7) That's the dog! I saw it at the dog show last week.
.....................................................
8) They're the birds. I fed them this morning.
....................................................
‘Who(m)’, ‘which’ or ‘that’ as the objects of prepositions
Study:
The position of prepositions in relative clauses is very important. We can say:
1) He is the person to whom I wrote. (Never 'to who) (very formal)
This is the pan in which I boiled the milk. (very formal)
2) He is the person who(m) I wrote to. This is the pan which I boiled the milk in.
3 However, we usually prefer to omit the relative and say:
He is the person I wrote to. This is the pan I boiled the milk in.
Write:
Join each pair of sentences in three different ways.
1)He's the man. I sent the money to him.
-> a) He’s the man to whom I sent the money.
-> b) He’s the man who(m) I sent the money to.
-> c) He’s the man I sent the money to.
2) She's the nurse.I gave the flowers to her.
a) .......................................................
b)........................................................
c) .......................................................
3) That's the chair. I sat on it.
a) .......................................................
b)........................................................
c) .......................................................
4) He’s the boy . I bought this toy for him.
a) .......................................................
b)........................................................
c) .......................................................
5) That's the building. I passed by it.
a) .......................................................
b)........................................................
c) .......................................................
6) They're the shops. I got these from them.
Context
Write:
Put in the right relative pronouns only where necessary.
A CHANCE IN A MILLION
Cissie, the woman ....who… works in our office, wanted to phone Mr Robinson, but she dialled the wrong number. The number ...................she dialled turned out to be the number of a public call box in the street.
A man, .............. was passing at the time, heard the phone ringing and answered it. "Is that Mr Robinson?" Cissie asked. "Speaking," the man answered. It turned out that the man ................... she was speaking to was actually called Robinson and had just happened to be passing the call box when she rang!
