Relative Clauses/23 September

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3-5

Today's Agenda

• rebus puzzle
• relative clause (betrekkelijke bijzin) _ 20 min.
• individual word _ 15 min. 

By the end of this lesson,

-you'll be able to make sentences using relative pronouns.

                           What is a relative clause?

Relative pronouns

A relative clause gives extra information about the noun in the main clause, without starting another sentence. This clause starts with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose, whom). 

- We met the woman.  She owns this hotel.

   We met the woman who owns this hotel.

        main clause                 relative clause

- That is the man.  He bought our house.

   That is the man who bought our house. 

      main clause        relative clause

So, it helps to avoid repeating information. 

               relative clause

relative clauses

relative clauses are " betrekkelijke bijzinnen".

There are two different kinds of relative clauses:

• defining relative clause 
• non-defining relative clauses

Relative clause begins with a relative pronoun; 

• who                     (people)                            -They caught the man who stole my bag.

 

• whom                   (people)                            -The girl to whom you gave the book is my sister./

                                     (*preposition)                 The girl whom you gave the book to is my sister. 

• which                    (animals & things)           -I lost the map which she gave me last week.

• that                 (people, animals & things)    -The movie that I watched yesterday was perfect.

                                                                                    -Here is my friend that I've known for ages. 

• whose                 (people,animals & things)  -She is the girl whose mother is a doctor. 
  

                                                                                  -The poem whose writer is anonymous is very touching. 

             2 kinds of relative clauses 

Defining relative clause

gives information that is necessary

(no comma)

Non-defining relative clause

gives information that is not necessary

(use commas)

My brother, who lives in Canada, is visiting for Christmas.

Here are the students who still need to finish their test. 

          who, which                     non-defining clause

          that                                 defining clause

My brother, who lives in Canada, is visiting for Christmas. 

Here are the students who/that still need to finish their test. 

I lost the map which/that she gave me last week. 

His car, which is a Range Rover, is black. 

 A relative pronoun can refer to a noun OR to a whole sentence. In this case 'which' can not be replaced by 'that'. 

Our flight to America was cancelled, which made our holiday plans difficult.

They ate 20 hot dogs, which is a dump idea.

                              When to drop which, who, that? 

                                - If it is followed by a subject

The university (which) she wants to apply for is very famous. 

-the university is the object of the relative clause. (She wants to apply for it.)

Ucla is the university which provides a full ride to me.  

-the university is the subject of the relative clause. (It provides a full ride to me.)

object

subject

                              Which relative pronoun can be omitted?

              1.  That's the woman who helped me.

              2.  That's the woman who I helped. 

www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Oh that's the boy who lives next door. 

The woman, who works here, left to go home.

Here is the phone which keeps going off.

This safe, which is new, is impossible to crack. 

They are the class that works the hardest.

That's the guy that I saw lingering by my house.

who

This is the victim whose laptop was stolen. 

This is the suspect whose name no one knew. 

which

that

whose

Do this exercise (link) and the following exercise below.

                     Let's do these exercises together.

individual work

1. p. 32 / ex. 3 & 4

Done?
-Get a worksheet from me

Let's recap

-What can you say about relative clause?

-What are the relative pronouns?

-Why do we use them?

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