Relative Clauses: Top 15 Key Points

Understanding relative clauses is essential for adding extra information to sentences. This guide covers the top 15 key points about relative clauses in English.

No.	Key Point	Explanation	Examples
1	Defining Relative Clauses	Provide essential information about the noun they modify. No commas used.	"The man who lives next door is a doctor." "The book that you gave me is interesting."
2	Non-defining Relative Clauses	Provide extra information, not essential. Set off by commas.	"My brother, who is an engineer, fixed the car." "Paris, which is the capital of France, is beautiful."
3	Relative Pronouns: 'Who'	Used for people.	"She is the one who taught me French." "The athletes who won the race trained hard."
4	Relative Pronouns: 'Which'	Used for animals and things.	"The book, which I read last night, was fascinating." "The dog, which we adopted, is very playful."
5	Relative Pronouns: 'That'	Can be used for people and things in defining relative clauses.	"The house that I bought was a bargain." "The woman that called yesterday is my aunt."
6	Relative Pronouns: 'Whose'	Shows possession for people and things.	"The lady whose cat was missing was very upset." "This is the book whose author won an award."
7	Relative Pronouns: 'Whom'	Formal, used for people, mainly in non-defining relative clauses or after prepositions.	"The director, to whom I reported, was very understanding." "The actor, whom we met last night, is famous."
8	Using 'Where' in Relative Clauses	Refers to a place.	"The town where I grew up is very small." "This is the house where she lives."
9	Using 'When' in Relative Clauses	Refers to a time.	"Summer is the season when I feel happiest." "1999 was the year when we moved to New York."
10	Omitting the Relative Pronoun	Often possible in defining relative clauses when the pronoun is the object.	"The book (that) I bought was expensive." "The person (who) you saw is my teacher."
11	Relative Clauses with Prepositions	Prepositions can be placed at the beginning of the relative clause.	"The professor with whom I studied is famous." "This is the situation in which we find ourselves."
12	Using 'What' in Relative Clauses	'What' equals 'the thing which/that' and is used to refer to things only.	"What you said is true." "I didn't understand what he meant."
13	Using 'Why' in Relative Clauses	Used for reasons, equivalent to 'the reason why'.	"The reason why he left is unclear." "This is why I don't go out much."
14	Participial Phrases as Reduced Relative Clauses	Participial phrases can replace relative clauses in certain cases.	"The man sitting next to me was snoring." (instead of "who was sitting") "The books stacked on the shelf are old." (instead of "which are stacked")
15	Complex Sentences with Relative Clauses	Relative clauses enable the formation of complex sentences for detailed expression.	"The car, which had been in the garage for years, still worked perfectly." "He has a friend who knows a lot about computers."