Defining Relative Clauses VS. Non-defining relative clauses.

Defining Relative Clauses VS. Non-defining relative clauses
 

>Non-defining Relative Clauses

They provide interesting additional information which is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence.

Example: Mrs. Jackson, who is very intelligent, lives on the corner.

"Mrs Johnson lives on the corner" provides a good piece of information. We also know that she is very intelligent, thanks to the relative clause (another interesting piece of information).

NB: YOU MUST USE COMMAS!

>Defining Relative Clauses

- their information is crucial in understanding the meaning of the sentence.
- if you remove them, the sentence has a different meaning or no meaning at all.

Examples:

The woman who lives in apartment No. 34 has been arrested.

What woman? The woman who lives in apartment n°34, not another woman.

A defining relative clause clearly defines who or what we are talking about. Without this information, it would be difficult to know who or what is meant.

NB: NO COMMAS!

Defining Relative Clauses

	Person	Object
Subject	who, that	which, that
Object	Ø, that (also: who, whom)	Ø, that (also: which)
Possessive	whose	whose, of which

Examples:

>Subject:
Example: Children who (that) play with fire are in great danger of harm.
The man who bought all the books by Hemingway has died.

Which is better? which/who OR that?
> who and which: written English
> that: oral English

>Object:
Example: That's the boy (Ø , that, who, whom) I invited to the party.
There's the house (Ø, that, which) I'd like to buy.

>Possessive:
Example: He's the man whose car was stolen last week.
They were sure to visit the town whose location (OR the location of which) was little known. 

EXERCISE ONE

 
EXERCISETWO

EXERCISETHREE