Relative clause

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• Example:
• I know a lot of people who have stopped eating meat.
• You can see people that have got rings.
• I only pierce young people whose parent or guardian is with them.

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• Independent Clause: I thanked the woman.
• Dependent/relative Clause: She helped me.
• I thanked the woman who/that helped me
• Independent Clause: I saw the man.
• Dependent/relative Clause: He closed the door.
• I saw the man who/that closed the door.
• *) who/that is the subject of the relative/dependent clause

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• RELATIVE PRONOUNS

	RELATIVE PRONOUNS
People	that, who
Things	that, which
Places	where
Possessive	whose
Time	When

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• I thanked the woman.
• She helped me.
• I thanked the woman who/that helped me
• I saw the man.
• He closed the door.
• I saw the man who/that closed the door.
• *) who/that is the subject of the relative clause
• *) we do not repeat the subject

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• 1. I visited the poor. Their houses are so messy.
• I visited the poor whose house are so messy.
• 2. I apologize the man. I spilled his coffee.
• I apologize the man whose coffee I spilled.
• *) whose CANNOT be erased/omitted
• *) Whose + the noun are placed at the beginning of the relative clause
• *) we do not repeat the possesive pronoun

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• We can erase the relative pronoun who, which, or that in defining relative clauses if
• the relative pronoun is not the subject of the relative clause OR
• the relative pronoun is not followed immediately by a verb.

DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• The girl is happy. She won the race.
• The girl who won the race is happy.
• We cannot erase relative pronoun (who) because it is the Subject of relative clause
• 2. The movie wasn’t good. We saw it last night.
• The movie (that) we saw last night wasn’t good.
• We can erase relative pronoun (that) because it is NOT the Subject of relative clause

Non-defining Relative Clause

• Ibu Cicilia, who teaches Bahasa Indonesia, is a very friendly teacher.
• Who are we talking about?
• Main clause: Ibu Cicilia is a very friendly teacher.
• Dependent clause: She teaches Bahasa Indonesia.

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• FUNCTION:
• Non-Defining Relative Clause is used:
• to give extra information about a person or a thing.
• To comment on the situation described in the first part of the sentence, before the comma

• Mick Shannon, who is a qualified body piercer, took me to his salon.
• Main clause: Mick Shannon took me to his salon.
• Dependent clause: who is a qualified body piercer.

• He finished by giving the girl advice on how to help the skin get better, which was a nice professional touch.
• Main clause: He finished by giving the girl advice on how to help the skin better.
• Dependent clause: which was a nice professional touch

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• More EXAMPLE:
• My father, who is a wonderful cook, promised to make a cake for my 18th birthday.
• Josia, who did not come to class yesterday, explained his absence to the teacher.

NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

• NOTE:
• is always separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
• We can never omit the relative pronoun (who, which, where, whose) in a Non-Defining Relative Clause.
• We cannot use the pronoun ‘that’

DEFINING vs NON DEFINING

• Compare:
• The professor who teaches Chemistry 101 is an excellent lecturer.
• 2. Professor Wilson, who teaches Chemistry 101, is an excellent teacher.
• In (1), no commas are used because the Relative Clause is important/necessary to identify which professor is meant.
• In (2), commas are used because the Relative Clause is not important/necessary to identify who Professor Wilson is.

Practice

• Activity 28 Task B