Lengua Inglesa II

UNIT 4. DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE

CLAUSES
 RELATIVE CLAUSES

We use relative clauses to give additional information about something without

starting another sentence. By combining sentences with relative clause, your
text becomes more fluent and you can avoid repeating certain words.
To combine these sentences we use relative pronouns:

Relative Pronoun Use Example Translation

Who / that Subject or object pronoun for a
person.
Which / that Subject or object pronoun for
animals and things.
Referring to a whole sentence.
Where Relat. Adverb.
Refers to a place. We can
substitute it with in which.
Whose Possession for people animals
and things.
whom Object pronoun for people
(specially in Non-defining)
The stunt who played El doble que hizo este
this role was a papel era un
professional. profesional.
Do you see the cat ¿Ves el gato que está
which is lying on the yaciendo en el tejado?
roof? No pudo leer lo que me
He couldn’t read sorprendió.
which/what surprised
me.
I was the other day in Estuve el otro día en el
the place where we had sitio donde tuvimos la
the meal. comida.
He’s the boy whose Es el chico cuya madre
mother is a nurse. es una enfermera.
I was invited by the Fui invitado por el
professor whom I met profesor al cual conocí
at the conference. en la conferencia.

*Note about that: It is preferable to use who or which in academic contexts,

unlike in the spoken language where it is more common to hear that.

 TYPES OF RELATIVE CLAUSES.

We have two types of relative clauses, which are respectively:
o Defining relative clauses. These ones give detailed information
defining a general term or expression. Defining relative clauses
are no put in commas. We often use them in definitions. Object
pronouns can be omitted on them.

o Non-defining relative clauses. They give additional information on

something, but no define it. They are always put in commas. In
non-defining relative clauses who/which may not be replaced with
that (in the majority of cases).
Lengua Inglesa II
UNIT 4. DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE
CLAUSES
EXERCISES DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES (C1)
Lengua Inglesa II
UNIT 4. DEFINING AND NON-DEFINING RELATIVE
CLAUSES
SOLUCIONES A LOS EJERCICIOS.