2. We are waiting for Tina.
Tina is from Italy.
Same thing in different sentences.
D.O.
Subj
.

3. We are waiting for Tina, is from Italy.who

4. We are waiting for Tina , is from Italy.who
We are waiting for Tina, who is from Italy.
This is the main clause. This is the subordinate clause.
Subordinate/Depen
dent clause
Its meaning is
incomplete if we
remove the main
clause.
Main /independent
clause
If we remove the
subordinate clause from
the sentence, its
meaning is still
complete.
The two sentences can be linked into one.
We use a relative pronoun to substitute the
common item and join the two sentences in one.

5. LINKING WORDS
RELATIVE
PRONOUNS
WHO / THAT WHICH / THAT WHOSE
PREPOSITION
+ WHOM
or
+WHICH
(Formal)

6. LINKING WORDS
RELATIVE
ADVERBS
WHEN /
THAT
WHERE
WHY /
THAT

7. Two types of relative clauses:
Non-Defining
 Extra information
about a noun in a
sentence
The new Brad Pitt film,
which I saw last week,
is very good.
 Use commas
 Always use a relative
pronoun:
who/whom ,which
whose, where, when
Defining
 Essential information
about a noun in a
sentence
He is the man (who) I
told you about.
 No commas
 Can omit pronoun if it is
not the SUBJECT of the
relative clause
 That (informal) can
replace which / who/
when / why but not
where, whose or whom

8. Defining relative clauses
= No commas
It cannot be left out of the sentence or the
meaning of the sentence is incomplete:
That’s the book that I read last month.
* That’s the book. (this sentence is
incomplete)

9. Defining relative clauses
= No commas
 You can omit the pronoun if it is the
OBJECT of the relative clause (if there is
a SUBJECT and a VERB after the
relative pronoun )
It’ That’s the book I read yesterday.
The boy who lives next door is Canadian.
 We can never omit WHOSE and WHERE

10. Non-defining relative
clauses = with commas
This kind of clause gives additional
information about a person or thing.
It still makes sense without the relative clause:
My neighbour, who comes from Turkey, is
very noisy.
My neighbour is very noisy.

11. Formal / Informal
Non-Defining relative clauses (with
commas) are more common in written
English because they are quite formal.
In spoken English we would probably use
two sentences.

12. Relative pronouns
Possessive: whose
 It takes the place of his, her, their or a noun
in possessive case ‘s.
 Mike, whose sister lives in Toronto,
is travelling to England this summer. (Mike’s
sister lives in Toronto).