A relative clause provides additional information about a noun. It contains a subject and verb but is not a complete sentence on its own. Relative clauses are introduced by a relative pronoun like who, which, that, or whose. They are optional and make clear which person or thing is being referred to. Common uses of relative clauses include providing information about a person or thing, describing when or where something occurred, and connecting two related ideas into one sentence.

1. What is a
relative clause?
A relative clause is one kind of dependent clause. It has
a subject and verb, but not yet a complete sentence. It
is sometimes called an “adjective clause” because it
functions like an adjective — it gives more information
about a noun.Relative clause is optional.

2. Which girl are you
talking about?
Oh I see! The girl who is
wearing a blue dress is your
sister.
That girl is
my sister
She is
wearing a
blue dress.

3. Relative Clause
• The girl who is wearing a blue dress is my sister.
● The relative pronouns (which, who, whom or that) refer to
the noun (or noun phrase) before it.
● Therefore, to form a relative clause, you need to use the
relative pronoun as it substitute a noun, a noun phrase, or
a pronoun when sentences are combined.

4. The relative pronouns
Subject Object Possessive
who whom, who whose
which which whose
that that
• We use who and whom for people, and which for things.
• We use that for people or things.
• Relative pronouns are used to introduce relative clauses, which tell us
more about people and things.

5. Relative clauses are used:
• to make clear which person or thing we are talking about. In these clauses we
can have the relative pronoun who, which, whose or that
1) Relative clause as subject
Eg:
1) Jimmy Choo who is a well-known fashion designer, designs shoes and bags.
2) The accident that happened last night was unavoidable.
3) The tiger which killed its keeper has been put down.
• Remember
The relative pronoun is the subject of the clause.
We do not repeat the subject:
*Jimmy Choo who he is a well-known fashion designer, designs shoes and bags.
*The tiger which it killed its keeper has been put down.
.

6. • as object of a clause
Eg:
1)Jimmy Choo designs shoes and bags which are adored by many
superstars.
2) Have you seen those people who we met on holiday?
3) You shouldn’t believe everything that you read in the newspaper.
• Sometimes we use whom instead of who when the relative pronoun is
the object:
Eg:
1)Have you seen those people whom we met on holiday?
• Or we sometimes leave it out:
Eg:
1)Have you seen those people we met on holiday?
2)You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.

7. • We also use when with times and where with places to make it
clear which time or place we are talking about:
Eg:
1)England won the world cup in 1996. It was the year when we got
married.
2) I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day when the
tsunami happened.
3) Do you remember the place where we caught the train?
4) Stratford-upon-Avon is the town where Shakespeare was born.
• ... but we can leave out the word when:
Eg:
1) England won the world cup in 1996. It was the year we got married.
2) I remember my twentieth birthday. It was the day the
tsunami happened.

8. • We often use quantifiers and numbers with relative pronouns:
many of whom - most of whom - one of which - none of whom
some of which - lots of whom - two of which - etc.
• We can use them as subject, object or object of a preposition.
Eg:
1) She has three brothers two of whom are in the army.
2) I read three books last week, one of which I really enjoyed.
3) There were some good programmes on the radio, none of
which I listened to.

9. • We often use the relative pronoun which to say
something about a clause:
Eg:
1) He was usually late, which always annoyed his
father.
2) We’ve missed our train, which means we may
be late.
*Remember, relative clauses are optional. The
sentence (idea) is complete even without the
clause.
ex: He was usually late.

10. Relative Clause
• Which relative pronoun should we use?
1. The girl studies French doesn’t
speak Cantonese.
2. Do you know the man I talked
to?
3. It’s a book will interest
children of all ages.

11. Relative Clause
• Which relative pronoun should we use?
1. The girl studies French doesn’t
speak Cantonese.
2. Do you know the man I talked
to?
3. It’s a book will interest
children of all ages.
who/that
whom/that
which/that

12. Relative Clause
The students are smart.
They are learning relative clause.
The students are smart.who are learning relative clause
‘who’ is used instead of ‘they’

13. Relative Clause
• Try to connect the sentences by using
relative clause.
e.g. The girls annoyed me. They laughed too
much.

14. Relative Clause
• Try to connect the sentences by using
relative clause.
e.g. The girls annoyed me. They laughed too
much.
The girls who laughed too much annoyed
me.

15. Exercise Time
1. The boy came to see me yesterday. He is
the group leader of the project.
2. The wallet is mine. You saw the wallet on
the desk.
3. The proposal is my idea. Ben presented to
the boss.
4. Danajaya won the first place in The World
Public Speaking Championship last year. He
is a teacher from Sri Lanka.

16. Check your answers
1.The boy came to see me yesterday. He is
the group leader of the project.
2. The wallet is mine. You saw the wallet on
the desk.
The wallet which (that) you saw on the desk is mine.
The boy who is the group leader of the project came to see
me yesterday.

17. 3. The proposal is my idea. Ben presented to
the boss.
4. Danajaya won the first place in The World
Public Speaking Championship last year. He is a
teacher from Sri Lanka.
Danajaya who is a teacher from Sri Lanka, won the first place in The World
Public Speaking Championship last year.
The proposal (that) which Ben presented to the boss is my idea.

18. That’s it...
bazilah raihan,umk