Relative clauses and necessary additional information (‹Defining Relative Clauses›)
How it works
‹Defining relative clauses› provide necessary additional information about people or things. Without this information, the sentence would be unclear or incomplete. In English, such relative clauses are usually introduced by ‹who› (for people), ‹which› (for things and animals) or ‹that› (for people, things and animals). Example: ‹The boy who is wearing a red shirt is my brother.› Here, the information about which boy is meant is necessary. Non-defining relative clauses (with commas) provide only additional, but not necessary, information; they are not covered here. The relative pronouns can sometimes be omitted when they are objects: ‹The book (that) I read was interesting.›
In English, no comma is used for necessary additional information (defining relative clauses). ‹Who› refers to people, ‹which› to things/animals, ‹that› can stand for both. The relative pronoun can be omitted when it is an object.
An example
Which sentence contains a necessary relative clause: ‹The girl who lives next door is my friend.› or ‹My friend lives next door.›
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50 Exercises
To the learning unit →Own explanation and own practice exercises by AmyMath. Subject reference framework: English. The topic assignment may vary by federal state.