Quickway 3 Grammar

The Relative Clauses

1. The relative Clauses:

Also called Adjective Clauses, they come after nouns and modify them. In other words, they tell the listener or reader more about the person or thing that the noun refers to.

The pronouns that often begin adjective clauses are called relative pronouns ( that, which, who, whom, whose, where ...)

For example:

A person who repairs cars in a workshop is known as a mechanic.
A person who sells vegetables is a greengrocer.
The man who gave you my telephone number is a friend of mine.

2. Reducing Adjective Clauses to Adjective Phrases:

If the subject relative pronoun ( who, which, that ) is followed by the verb be in any tense, both the relative pronoun and the verb be can be omitted.

For example:
The students who are working on the immigration project are absent today .
--> The students working on the immigration project are absent today.

The articles which were published in the school magazine yesterday are about the negative effects of stereotypes.

--> The articles published in the school magazine yesterday are about the negative effects of stereotypes.

3. Relative pronouns as objects:

The object relative pronouns for people are who, whom, that. Whom is more formal than who. The object relative pronouns for things are which, that. It is also possible to omit these pronouns.

For example:

The class leader whom the majority of the students elected became the president of the students' union.

-->The class leader the majority of the students elected became the president of the students' union.

Ahmed is the right person that we need for this position.

--> Ahmed is the right person we need for this position.

4. Restrictive/Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses:

The two main types of adjective clauses are:

Restrictive (or Defining Relative Clause) and Nonrestrictive (or Non-Defining Relative Clause) have distinct meanings and uses.

A restrictive adjective clause gives information that helps to identify the noun that it describes.
For example:

My sister who attends Al-Akhawyn university is very studious. (I have two sisters: One of them attends attends Al-Akhawayn university , the other doesn't).

However, a Nonrestrictive adjective clause, adds additional information about the noun it describes. This information is not necessary to identify the noun.
For example:

Samira, who attends Al-Akhawyn university, is very studious. (She attends Al-Akhawyn university is extra information).

Tetuan, which is located in the north of Morocco, is a World’s Cultural Heritage. (Tetuan is located in the north of Morocco) is not necessary to understand the information in the sentence.

5. The relative pronouns: whose - when - where:

WHOSE replaces the possessive forms of nouns and pronouns. It can refer to people, animals or things. It can be part of a subject or part of an object of a verb or preposition, but it cannot be a complete subject or object. Whose cannot be omitted.
For example:

The man is very thankful. I found the man’s wallet. (His wallet)
-->The man whose wallet I found is very thankful.

The girl is jumping with excitemnt. Her mother won the lottery. (The girl’s mother)
-->The girl whose mother won the lottery is jumping with excitement.

WHEN replaces a time (in + year, in + month, on + day,...). It cannot be a subject. It can be omitted.
For example:

I will never forget the day. I graduated on that day.
-->I will never forget the day when I graduated.

The same meaning can be expressed in other ways:
-->I will never forget the day on which I graduated.
-->I will never forget the day that I graduated.
-->I will never forget the day I graduated.

WHERE replaces a place (in + country, in + city, at + school,...). It cannot be a subject. It can be omitted but a preposition (at, in, to) usually must be added.
For example:

The building is being reconstructed. Leila works in the building. (there)
-->The building where Leila works is being reconstructed.

The same meaning can be expressed in other ways:

-->The building in which Leila works is being reconstructed.
-->The building which Leila works in is being reconstructed.
-->The building that Leila works in is being reconstructed.
-->The building Leila works in is being reconstructed.

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