Relative clauses: The man who ....

 
GENERAL FEATURES OF RELATIVE CLAUSES:

• Always follow the noun they describe.
• We use the following relative pronouns to describe:

        Who: a person   which:  an object   that: person or thing    whom: a person (after a preposition)
        where: a place   when: a time         whose: a possession      why: a reason

• Two kinds of relative clauses:

         DEFINING: 

• Essential to the meaning of the sentence 
• Aren't separated by commas  
• Cannot be omitted
• We can use who/that or which/that

          People who can't buy a car can rent one at Hertz.

       NON-DEFINING: 

• Provides extra, non-essential information about people or things
• Commas are used  to separate the relative clause from  the main sentence
• Can be omitted
• We can only use who or which

         Hertz customers who pay a monthly fee, can rent the car like.
  
        Now go to english exercises, and practise what we have learnt.

    OMITTING THE RELATIVE PRONOUN: 

     It is also sometimes possible to omit the relative pronoun.

• This is the skirt that I bought in the sales.
• This is the skirt which I bought in the sales.
• This is the skirt I bought in the sales.

   In this sentence ‘skirt’ is the object of the verb (buy). ‘I’ is the subject. When the relative pronoun is the object, it can be omitted.

•  The film we saw last week was awful.

BUT The dog bit my brother. This is not possible because the dog is the subject of the verb, ‘bite’.

   Now join these exercises using a relative pronoun:

•     I am watching a film. It has a very sad end.
•     He didn't believe my story. It was surprising.
•     There is the lady. Her purse was stolen.
•     I bought them in France. I was there last year.
•     We went away in August. The children were on holiday.