RELATIVE CLAUSES
Notes
The guy who lives in the flat above mine has just won the lottery.
= DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE which gives ESSENTIAL
INFORMATION
My oldest son, who has just graduated, is looking for a job
abroad.
= NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE which gives EXTRA
INFORMATION
What’s the difference between these 2 sentences?
1. My son, who lives in London, is a journalist.
2. My son who lives in London is a journalist.
In sentence 1, I have only 1 SON. The fact that he lives in London
is extra information.
In sentence 2, I have MORE THAN 1 SON – I need a DEFINING
RELATIVE CLAUSE to make it clear exactly which son I’m talking
about. I’m talking about my son who lives in London (NOT, for
example, my son who lives in Milan).
ANSWERS:
1. B
2. A
3. A
4. B
5. B
6. A
OMITTING THE RELATIVE PRONOUN
One of the guys (that/who) I work with is from Venezuela.
WE CAN OMIT THE RELATIVE PRONOUN WHEN IT IS THE OBJECT
OF A DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE
WHO or WHOM?
Who is going to the party tonight? WHO = SUBJECT
Whom do you think we should invite to the party? WHOM =
OBJECT This sounds very formal though, so we tend to use
‘WHO’:
Who do you think we should invite to the party? = OBJECT
To whom did you address the letter? = PREPOSITION + WHOM
After a preposition, we use WHOM. This is very formal though, so
we tend to use ‘WHO’ and to put the preposition at the end of
the question:
Who did you address the letter to?
The man (who/whom) you saw in my car was my uncle.
WHO/WHOM = OBJECT. But this is a DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE,
so we can even omit the pronoun:
The man you saw in my car was my uncle.
SEE MORE NOTES HERE:
https://www.lexico.com/grammar/who-or-whom
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/who-vs-whom-its-not-as-complicated-
as-you-might-think/#:~:text=Whom%20should%20be%20used%20to,the
%20subject%20of%20a%20sentence.
WHOSE refers to possessions:
This is the man whose wife teaches my daughter.
In NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES, we CANNOT use ‘THAT’
instead of ‘WHO’ & ‘WHICH’:
This house, WHICH was built 200 years ago, has just been sold for
£1,000,000.
My brother, WHO has just lost his job, needs cheering up.
In NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES we can use quantifying
determiners such as:
Some
Any
None
All
Both
Several
Many
Few
Followed by: OF WHICH (referring to things), OF WHOM
(referring to people) and OF WHOSE (referring to possessions).
EXAMPLES:
They invited a lot of guests, MANY OF WHOM decided to bring
their whole families.
The teacher asked them lots of questions, ALL OF WHICH were
difficult.
The employees, SOME OF WHOSE jobs are at risk, decided to go
on strike.
We can also use these structures after other expressions of
quantity, with superlatives and with numbers. For example:
A NUMBER OF WHOM THREE OF WHICH THE
MAJORITY OF WHOSE
THE YOUNGEST OF WHOM HALF OF WHICH A THIRD OF
WHICH
ETC.
COMPLETE THESE SENTENCES WITH ‘OF WHOM’, ‘OF
WHOSE’ OR ‘OF WHICH’:
1. The students, all ______________ were very tired,
couldn’t concentrate in class.
2. He gave me a lot of books, some ______________
were extremely interesting.
3. I didn’t agree with the second speaker, some
____________ comments were quite shocking!
4. I was given a lot of forms to fill in, several
_____________ I didn’t understand at all.
5. My brother-in-law, the majority _____________
wealth was inherited, is very rich.
6. I have two brothers, neither _______________ I see
very often though.
ANSWERS:
1. OF WHOM
2. OF WHICH
3. OF WHOSE
4. OF WHICH
5. OF WHOSE
6. OF WHOM
Watch these clips for more details and examples:
NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ohhyIC-AZFY
WHO, WHOM or WHOSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbS7-
T4Z-kQ
DEFINING & NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppyws3GdZ2E
