RELATIVE CLAUSES - valdenorenglish@gmail.com

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1) RELATIVE CLAUSES:

• A relative clause is one kind of dependent clause. It has a subject and verb, but can’t stand alone as a sentence. It is sometimes called an “adjective clause” because it functions like an adjective—it gives more information about a noun.

• A relative clause always begins with a “relative pronoun”  which substitutes for a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun.

• Relative Pronouns (who, whom, which, whose, that)

➧ EXAMPLES:

• Stacy’s truck that is painted red has a dent in the back bumper. (O caminhão de Stacy aquele pintado de vermelho tem um amassado no para-choque traseiro.)

• Stacy’s truck, which is painted red, has a dent in the back bumper.(O caminhão de Stacy, que é pintado de vermelho, tem um amassado no para-choque traseiro.)

• I talked to the man who is standing over there.(Falei com o homem que está de pé ali.)

• I watched the new movie which was released last week.(Assisti ao novo filme que foi lançado na semana passada.)

• William Shakespeare, who died in 1616, wrote very famous plays.(William Shakespeare, que morreu em 1616, escreveu peças muito famosas.)

2) RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES or DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES:

• Restrictive relative clauses give information that defines the noun — information that’s necessary for complete identification of the noun.

• We use “that” or “which” for non-human nouns;

• We use “that” or “who” for human nouns.

• We do not use commas.

• REMEMBER THAT:  A difining clause means that the information in the clause is necessary to understand the preceding noun.(Uma 'difining clause' significa que as informações na oração são necessárias para compreender o substantivo anterior.) 

➧ EXAMPLES:

• Stacy’s truck [noun] that is painted red [defining clause] has a dent in the back bumper.

Here, the second sentence implies that Stacy owns multiple trucks, thus making it necessary to specify the red one.

• I talked to the man who is standing over there.

• I watched the new movie which was released last week.

3) NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES or NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES:

•  A non-restrictive clause merely provides extra information.

• The information may be quite interesting and important to the larger conversation, but it is not essential for precise identification of the noun.

• “That” cannot be used as a relative pronoun in a non-restrictive relative clause.

• Commas are always used at the beginning and end of this type of relative clause.

• REMEMBER THAT: A non-restrictive clause can modify a single noun, a noun phrase, or an entire proposition.

➧ EXAMPLES:

• Stacy’s truck, which is painted red, has a dent in the back bumper.

- Here, the information about Stacy’s truck being red is not necessary to the sentence. Stacy only has one truck, so the extra information doesn’t help identify it. So, in this case, we use which and separate the non-restrictive clause with commas.

• William Shakespeare, who died in 1616, wrote very famous plays.

4) REDUCING RELATIVE CLAUSES:

Some types of relative clauses can be “reduced”— the relative pronoun and maybe other words can be removed. You might reduce the clause to make your writing more concise or to add sentence variety.

We’ll use the examples above to demonstrate how to reduce both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses.

5) REDUCED DIFINING-CLAUSES:

- Replace the Difining Clause by a Participle Construction (-ing for Present Participle Clause and –ed for Past Participle Clause) while keeping the rest of the sentence unchanged.

5.1) Reduced Defining Clause or Present Participle Clause:

(a) I talked to the man who is standing over there [defining clause].

(b) I talked to the man standing over there [reduced defining clause or past participle clause].

5.2) Reduced Defining Clause or Past Participle Clause:

(a) I watched the new movie [noun] which was released last week [defining clause].

(b) I watched the new movie [noun] released last week [reduced defining clause or past participle clause].

(a) The girl who was picked up by her brother was very nice.

(b) The girl picked up by her brother was very nice.

(a) Stacy’s truck that is painted red has a dent in the back bumper.

(b) Stacy’s truck painted red has a dent in the back bumper.

 

Q U E S T Õ E S  D E  V E S T I B U L A R E S

01. The sentences "Students like Ms. Cook are among the first generation of undergraduates at dozens of colleges to take humanities courses — even Shakespeare — that are deeply influenced by a new array of powerful digital tools and vast online archives.", "The site, which includes scans of original documents from Bryn Mawr’s library, was (and remains) viewable."  and "Ms. Rowe’s students, who have occasionally met with her on the virtual Globe stage while wearing pajamas in their dorm rooms, are enthusiastic about the technology."

contain,  respectively, relative clauses of the following types:
A) non-defining, defining and  non-defining.
B) non-defining, non-defining and defining.
C) defining, non-defining and non-defining.
D) defining, defining and defining.

• ANSWER (C)

◼ A) non-defining, defining and  non-defining.
◼ B) non-defining, non-defining and defining.
◼ C) defining, non-defining and non-defining.
◼ D) defining, defining and defining.

➧ EXPLANATION:

1) In the 1st sentence: Students like Ms. Cook [noun] are among the first generation of undergraduates at dozens of colleges to take humanities courses — even Shakespeare [noun] — that are deeply influenced [defining clause] by a new array of powerful digital tools and vast online archives..

- It is defining clause because the sentence used the relative pronoun THAT.

2) In the 2nd sentence: The site [noun], which includes scans of original documents from Bryn Mawr’s library,[non-defining clause] was (and remains) viewable.

- It is non-defining clause because the relative pronoun  WHICH is preceded by a comma.

3) In 3rd sentence: Ms. Rowe's students [noun], who have occasionally met with her on the virtual Globe stage while wearing pajamas in their dorm rooms, [non-defining clause] are enthusiastic about the technology.

- It is non-defining clause because the relative pronoun WHO is preceded by a comma.